If you can still get your hands on a copy of January’s Skirt! magazine, you might want a copy of gifted writer Stephanie Hunt’s essay Breach Birth. A local author, Stephanie is a regular contributor to Skirt! magazine and Charleston Magazine, as well as other publications. Her personal description of witnessing a right whale deliver a calf last winter is beautiful and timely, and well worth the read. I’ll quote a bit here as a teaser, but I recommend clicking the link above for the whole essay.
…something big and gray emerged then splashed down in a heavy freefall. A few seconds later, another rise and fall—it looked like two oddly-shaped pewter canisters twisting and then plummeting in a hefty splash, a watery exclamation. Pelicans floating nearby took flight.
“Whales!” my daughter realized. An immense mermaid tail rose up, heaved left and right, as if waving an affirmative, “You got it!” We watched, mesmerized, as these creatures hoisted themselves in the air, twirled and plummeted. Awkward arabesques in a sheer choreography of heft. At one point, it looked as if one whale was standing on its head, waving its fluke back and forth like a beauty queen in a small town Christmas parade. They rolled and rollicked, danced and breached, only about 75 yards off shore, oblivious to their gawking audience on the sand.
Right whales face huge challenges from ships because they swim close to shore, in shipping channels. The Post and Courier has been following a story of an injured/tangled right whale in the Atlantic.
The right whale is the rare giant of the Atlantic, a 40-ton, 50-foot-long mammal that whalers nearly wiped out in the 19th century. Only about 400 are known to exist today, so few that researchers consider every whale vital to the survival of the species. Ship strikes are considered a leading threat.
The EcoHealth team first spotted the whale Jan. 15, uninjured, south of Savannah and traveling south. The team issued a maritime alert of the creature’s presence and position, Schulte said.
When they saw it again 10 days later, about 15 miles southeast of St. Helena Sound, the back had been sliced at least 14 times by the propeller, she said. The cuts are deep enough that she suspects the propeller also was damaged.
Today’s Post and Courier reports that scientists have been experimenting with ways to sedate the animals from the air. This is featured in a really fascinating NOAA report that went out on January 18, which has a lot of great information and even video of the whale rescue using sedation.
Former Naturalist Jonathan Lutz posted this link to an article in the Savannah paper on Facebook in November.
Right whales are as large as a bus but can be tough to spot because they are dark with no dorsal fin, and they often swim slowly at or just below the water’s surface.
These “urban” whales stick close to the coast, and as a result, their migration routes intersect with busy shipping lanes and ports, making the whales vulnerable to vessel strikes. Ship strikes and entanglement in fixed fishing gear are the two greatest threats to the recovery of North Atlantic right whales.
Last year, 19 calves were born in Southeast waters, their only known calving grounds. The year before, a record 40 calves were counted.
If you see a right whale from the shore or a boat, please report it to DNR.