Media Release 4.1
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tanya Gabettie
PCCS, 508-237-1920

First Right Whale Calf Sighted in Cape Cod Bay

The calf was sighted during a routine survey flight over Cape Cod Bay, about 8 miles north of Sandwich. According to Cynthia Browning, PCCS aerial survey coordinator, the calf was seen nursing. "We believe the mother to be # 1425, she and her calf were sighted this winter in the calving grounds located in the southeastern United States," Browning said. Winter calving grounds for North Atlantic right whales are located off the coasts of South Carolina through Florida, and are monitored by aerial surveys throughout the calving season.

Mother-calf pairs frequent Cape Cod Bay from March through May before they migrate to the Bay of Fundy where they spend their summers. Browning adds, "Calves generally stay with their mothers for a year, although there have been cases of a calf remaining with its mom well into its second year."

This year eighteen calves have been born, an average number for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale population. The highest number of right whale births on record was in 2001, when 31calves were recorded.

PCCS aerial surveys are conducted under the authority of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

Since 1998, PCCS has conducted systematic aerial surveys to monitor right whales as part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Right Whale Conservation Plan. These data provide valuable information on the distribution, abundance and population characteristics of right whales in the Bay. PCCS provides data to state and federal agencies managing human activities, such as vessel traffic and fishing, which occur in right whale habitat areas. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries prohibits gillnet fishing in all of the Cape Cod Bay Critical Habitat from January 1 thru May 15.

***

###