North Atlantic right whale conservation measures have had substantial economic impacts on stakeholder shipping and fishing industries in eastern waters of the U.S. and Canada. Lethal and sub-lethal trauma from line entanglement and vessel collision are major risk factors for the survival of individual right whales and their species.

On top of that, climate-driven foraging challenges and repeated sub-lethal vessel and entanglement trauma have driven altered migration patterns, poor individual weight and growth gains, and in turn diminished health and calving success. Combined, these factors have led to a serious recent decline of the species (falling by 30% since 2010). About 340 remain, with only about 70 breeding females. If these trends do not change, the breeding females will be gone by 2035.

Better year-round data on right whale presence in affected areas are critical, given substantial densities of vessels and vertical buoy lines in these waters. Available tracking tools include aerial and vessel visual surveys, photographs of individuals for population trends and health assessment, passive acoustic monitoring using buoys, traps, gliders and vessels, and implanted satellite tracking tags. Tracking by satellite imagery is under development but not yet viable.

On Sept. 18, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced $82 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding for North Atlantic right whale conservation. This significant investment is a critical step in reversing the trend toward extinction for the species. It includes support for monitoring, modeling, vessel strike reduction, on-demand fishing and enforcement. It also includes $3.5 million for a satellite tagging monitoring program.

Whale tags attached with suction cups only last for about a day. In order to last for weeks at a time, they must be shot into the blubber. To last for months at a time, they must be injected into the blubber and underlying muscle. Tissue damage and consequent pain are inevitable with these rigid metal implants. For the tags in blubber and muscle, each time the whale makes a swimming stroke, the sharp tag tip likely sustains a cavity as the muscle slides back and forth under the blubber.

This damage can be minimized, if not avoided, by aiming for the area behind the blowhole. Invasive tracking tag trauma in right whales is viewed with serious concern by many in the North Atlantic right whale research community and some marine mammal veterinarians, given the poor condition of these animals, compared to the Southern right whale species, where satellite tags have been recently tested with some success. The relatively short lives of these implanted tags make tagging the entire species inconceivable. Adding to the current burden of vessel and line trauma for this seriously compromised species makes no sense.

Therefore, these satellite tagging funds should be used to develop a long-lasting, biocompatible tag that causes minimal tissue injury. Meanwhile the non-invasive technologies, which are also subject to support from the recent Inflation Reduction Act funds, should be ramped up substantially, along with systems to efficiently communicate critical data to stakeholders at sea.

Despite attempts to dynamically manage vessel collision and line entanglement risks by tracking whales in the Gulf of St Lawrence in 2022, four North Atlantic right whales appear to have acquired new entanglements in that year. Thus, we cannot effectively dodge whale individuals, and groups. Thus, using non-invasive tracking techniques to define areas of greater risk and to establish conservation measures within those areas – such as removing line from the water column and moving or slowing vessels – is critical to allowing shipping, smaller boats and fisheries to co-exist with North Atlantic right whales sustainably and profitably.

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