Most winter days off Georgia's coast, scientists crisscross the waves looking for North Atlantic right whales. Those in a boat stay in constant contact with colleagues in a small plane — all scanning the water for whales and, hopefully, newborn calves.
Whale surveys like this are critical to identifying and cataloging every right whale calf that's born, important work because these are some of the most endangered whales in the world. Just about 370 North Atlantic right whales remain.
But the surveys in the sky and on the water are also imperfect, so scientists are ramping up the effort to track the whales in other ways — especially in the Southeast, where the whales migrate to give birth this time of year.
"Unfortunately, the weather in December, January, February, doesn't always let flights happen," said Catherine Edwards, a researcher at the University of Georgia's Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. So she and her team are using tools to listen for whales underwater, which can happen no matter the weather or time of day.
"The biggest success we had from last year is we have the very first confirmed passive acoustic detection of right whales south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina," Edwards said.
Passive acoustic detection means supersensitive microphones floating around underwater, listening for whale sounds. Similar technology is used extensively in the north, but the shallower water off the southeastern U.S. makes it more difficult in the whales' calving grounds.
There used to be thousands of these whales. But the 19th century whaling industry prized them as the "right whale to hunt" because they're slow, and swim near the surface. By the time hunting of right whales was banned in the 1930s, there were only about 100 or fewer left. They bounced back to nearly 500 by 2010, but now they're back down to about 370 whales.
"We're at the point where the loss of a couple of animals could be the difference between recovery and extinction," said University of South Carolina professor Erin Meyer-Gutbrod, who's working with Edwards to improve acoustic tracking in the South.
Humans are the main killers of right whales. Earlier this month, two whales were seen tangled up in fishing gear southeast of Nantucket. Biologists said one is likely to die from the injuries. This is a common cause of injury and death for right whales.
Right whales are also hit and killed by boats. Alerts do go out to boaters when whales are spotted, but the current spotting effort still misses whales. There is a 10-knot, or 11 mph, speed limit in whale-sensitive areas, like the coast of Georgia, during calving season, but only for large boats of 65 feet and longer. Many ships go too fast, according to studies by the advocacy group Oceana. And enforcement doesn't happen in real time.
Shipping industry groups say the speed limit won't always work for smaller boats, which need to move faster to stay safe and maneuver in ocean conditions.
But Meyer-Gutbrod hopes better tracking can convince vessels to voluntarily slow down to help save right whales.
"As much as we want to see a strengthening of these regulations, we also need to increase effort into motivating higher compliance rates," she said.
That's a main goal of another monitoring effort, on Tybee Island, near Savannah.
In a loft at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center, floor-to-ceiling windows offer a panoramic view of the shipping channel into the busy port of Savannah. Up there, a monitoring system displays the position and speed of ships moving offshore. Visitors can use an interactive map of the shoreline to track ships and whales in real time.
"So you can see, almost like a video game, how they are just on top of one another," said science center director Chantal Audran.
Right now, the exhibit is just there to raise awareness, but one day, Audran hopes it can have a more direct impact: She's waiting on permits that will allow the system to send text message alerts to ships when they go too fast. On Cape Cod, scientists say similar alerts have prompted ships to slow down voluntarily.
Audran said humans have a responsibility to protect right whales. In a play on their historic nickname, the exhibit on Tybee is dubbed "The Right Whale to Save."
"To watch a species kind of so rapidly disappear in front of your eyes, it's something you don't often see an animal lost in a lifetime," she said. "But that might just be the case for the right whale, unless we do something."
For the next few months, the whales will do their part by birthing their calves. The scientists will work to spot every one, and hope they survive. Several calves born last season are presumed dead — and at least one was killed by a boat strike.
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between member station WABE and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
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