Policy enabling North Atlantic right whale reproductive health could save the species

Abstract

North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) risk extinction unless conservation measures not only reduce mortality but also enhance reproduction. Vessel collisions injure and kill by spinning propeller cuts or being hit with a blunt structure resulting in bone and soft tissue damage. Entanglement trauma includes sublethal injuries that can reduce their ability to reproduce, while lethal events include drowning, deep constricting wounds, and emaciation leading to death over months or years. Current regulations attempt to reduce mortality from vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglement off the eastern shores of the United States and Canada. However, sub-lethal stressors, especially entanglement, have exacerbated impacts from climate-driven food supply changes, resulting in a serious reduction in growth of individuals and calving rates. If consumers demand that their ship-borne goods and bottom-caught seafood be procured without serious welfare and health concerns for the whales, recovery is possible. We need the will to widely employ the tools of vessel speed restrictions and acoustic retrieval of bottom traps and nets without a persistent vertical line in the water column to reduce sub-lethal as well as lethal trauma. Thus, consumers should pressure legislators, endangered species managers, and suppliers for far broader protections than currently exist.