The falling body size of North Atlantic right whales may have serious ramifications for the species' survival.
According to new studies, smaller females have fewer calves.
Previous studies revealed that North Atlantic right whales are shrinking in size, owing in part to frequent interconnections in fishing gear.
According to the current results, minimizing the effects of such sub-lethal shocks might aid in population growth.
Female North Atlantic right whales with smaller body sizes have fewer calves
KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images
According to Joshua Stewart, a research biologist with NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center who collaborated on the findings with other scientists from Oregon State University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the New England Aquarium, and SR3, smaller females appear to have less capacity to raise calves as frequently as larger whales.
Because of their smaller size, they may take longer to recover from the energy cost of giving birth, especially in light of other population stressors.
The findings highlight the need of increasing and enforcing safeguards under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.
North Atlantic right whales have been identified as a Species in the Spotlight by NOAA Fisheries, indicating that they require targeted recovery efforts.
Aerial photography reveals a link between body size and reproduction
Body measurements were taken from high-resolution aerial pictures collected over two decades by scientists employing airplanes and drones to monitor the actual sizes of North Atlantic right whales, as per ScienceDaily.
They were capable of measuring whales by hovering a camera high over them, effectively giving them a non-invasive health check, according to co-author John Durban, who previously worked at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center and is now at Oregon State University.
Scientists compared the sizes of 41 female North Atlantic right whales photographed from 2000 to 2019 to their reproductive histories.
Smaller whales have fewer progeny each reproductive year, according to the connection.
The population's birth rate, which is presently fewer than 350 animals, is already at a 40-year low.
Seeing whales disappear one by one, by name
For at least a millennia, humans have been chasing right whales in the Atlantic.
Between modern-day France and Spain, Basque whale hunters studied the horizon from stone towers.
Whales crowded the Mayflower after it anchored off the coast of Cape Cod, and humans soon followed suit.
The gigantic predator siphons small zooplankton near the ocean surface much like a deer grazes a field, making them easy targets, according to Herman Melville.
Rights, unlike many other whales, float after death, making them simpler to carry. Whereas the carnage wiped off the species, the plunder contributed to the creation of the modern world.
Whale oil was used to lubricate the machinery of the Industrial Revolution and to light burgeoning towns.
Baleen, which was employed to filter food, were removed from their mouths and fashioned into collars, corsets, and petticoats.
By the American Revolution, the island of Nantucket had become the capital of the fledgling nation's thriving whaling industry.
The New England Aquarium's charter boat cruised south under the stars between Nantucket and adjacent Martha's Vineyard early one March morning this year.
Even during the busy summer season on Cape Fish, the Helen H transports visitors trying to catch fluke and cod.
The study team chartered the 100-foot yacht during a late-winter slowdown.
With windy conditions predicted, the study team took out from Barnstable, Massachusetts, at 3 a.m. to arrive in whale-filled seas before daybreak.
