Pelagic Report

"I'd like to stand on a boat and say to them, 'What the hell's going on with you guys?'" said Dr. Charles "Stormy" Mayo, expressing his frustration at the dire situation of the North Atlantic right whales. "If I could stand there and just say: 'Tell me what's going on.' Because it doesn't make a lot of sense."

Congress is taking up amendments to the 45-year old Marine Mammal Protection Act that could allow for more seismic exploration in the ocean.

The acoustic surveys are the first step toward oil exploration. By blasting loud noise at the seabed and measuring the reflections, surveyors can learn about potential underground deposits of oil and gas.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association today announced it has lifted the suspension of whale entanglement efforts on all species except North Atlantic right whales.

The suspension was triggered by the tragic death last week of Canadian responder Joe Howlett, who was killed while freeing a right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The skeleton of a 35-foot whale is being installed for public display at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown. It’s not just any whale, either. It's the skeleton of an 11-year-old humpback that researchers followed from when she was a calf. 

This week saw a season high for the number of endangered North Atlantic right whales spotted in Cape Cod Bay, including two new-of-the-year calves. It's the second-largest reported aggregation, behind only last year. 

How do you locate a few endangered whales in 200 square miles of ocean? Take to the air and look for the telltale spout.

A sharp drop in the birth rate of rare North Atlantic right whales has scientists worried. So far this year, only three calves have been identified. A more typical season might bring between ten and fifteen newborn calves.  

"It's a frighteningly low number," says Dr. Charles "Stormy" Mayo, a Senior Scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown. 

Two groups that are often perceived to be at odds, fishermen and scientists, have been working together to improve fishing techniques and gear, with the goal of reducing unwanted catches. Among their innovations? The Tickle Dredge and the Noodle Buoy. 

You may think of January as the time of year for animals to be hibernating, or wintering in warmer locales. But around Cape Cod, January is when right whales typically begin to appear again, returning from other points.

Last Sunday a young humpback whale was reported caught in fishing gear in the waters outside Boston Harbor. Members of the Marine Animal Entanglement Response Team, from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, traveled to the scene. Scott Landry, Director of the team, speaks with WCAI's Steve Junker about disentangling the whale.

Water quality issues can impact people’s lives – and livelihoods – on the Cape and Islands. We’ve seen that most recently with the rounds of shellfish closures. Now there's a website that shows water quality data from around the region.

Gulf Stream Orphans are appearing in our region. That’s not the name of a rock band, and they’re not unaccompanied children. Gulf Stream Orphans is the research term for Caribbean fish that show up in our Cape Cod waters, and scientists are looking to see if their numbers are increasing.

To the casual observer it may seem as though humpback whales have suddenly appeared in numbers in local waters. This is another sign of June, as these seasonal migrants have returned from their breeding grounds in the Caribbean with new calves in tow.

A new local initiative to address climate change issues has launched. It's called the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative, and it draws inspiration from last December's historic Paris accord treaty. 

Periodically through the late winter we have been updating you on the return of right whales to Cape Cod Bay. This past week marked a big increase in sightings of the rare mammals in our waters, along with the season's first calf.