North Atlantic right whales may be in Cape Cod Bay for a longer time because of climate change: Scientists
North Atlantic right whales’ habits in Cape Cod Bay have shifted significantly over the past 20 years, as the critically endangered population spends more time in the bay because of climate change, according to new research.
Using more than two decades of data, scientists from the New England Aquarium and elsewhere measured shifts in whale habitat use in Cape Cod Bay. They looked at trends in peak use for right whales, humpback whales and fin whales.
The researchers found that peak use of Cape Cod Bay had shifted almost three weeks later for right whales and humpback whales — with the changes related to when spring starts, which has been moving as a result of climate change.
Researchers found an increased habitat use by right whales in Cape Cod Bay from February to May, with the greatest increases in April and May.
“The time of year when we are most likely to see right and humpback whales in Cape Cod Bay has changed considerably, and right whales are using the habitat much more heavily than they did 20 years ago,” said lead author Dan Pendleton, a research scientist in the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life.
The scientists theorized that right whales may be using Cape Cod Bay for a longer period of time because climate change has reduced the amount of food available in other Gulf of Maine habitats.
These changes may have turned the bay into a sort of “waiting room” for right whales as richer prey resources develop in new habitats, such as the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The researchers conducted this study in the Gulf of Maine because it’s one of the most rapidly warming regions of the ocean. Sea surface and bottom temperatures in the Gulf of Maine have increased at a rate three times faster than the global average over recent decades.
Changing ocean circulation and temperature — including earlier spring, later fall, longer summer and shorter winter — have led to changes in whales’ food supply throughout the Gulf of Maine.
“Even though they’re the largest mammals on earth, we have an incomplete understanding of where some whales go and when,” said Michelle Staudinger, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, science coordinator at the Northeast Climate Adaption Science Center and professor of environmental conservation at UMass Amherst. “This new research helps us understand how seasonal whale migration is changing, which is critical for their protection and conservation in our region.”
The right whale population has declined over the past decade due to human activities, such as vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglements.
“Changes in when whales use their traditional habitats has important implications for the design of protected areas,” Pendleton said. “This issue is especially important as climate change continues to alter animal migrations.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/O3rqbcQ
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