From a whale species never seen alive to a rare individual venturing back to former killing fields off Ireland, and a humpback unusually close to the English east coast, whales have been capturing the imaginations of marine-life observers around the world this July.
The species that has yet to be seen alive is a type of beaked whale that washed ashore in Otago, New Zealand this month. Department of Conservation (DOC) staff were notified about the presence of the recently deceased 5m-long male spade-toothed whale (Mesoplodon traversii) on 4 July.
Also added: Volunteers free tethered whale in Skye
“Since the 1800s only six samples have ever been documented worldwide, and all but one of these was from New Zealand,” said DOC Coastal Otago operations manager Gabe Davies. “From a scientific and conservation point of view, this is huge.”
The beaked whale had died sufficiently recently to provide marine biologists with their first-ever opportunity for dissection. It has been placed in cold storage pending DNA testing of samples by the University of Auckland, which curates the New Zealand Cetacean Tissue Archive, to confirm identification of the species.
Also read: Another humpback whale freed off Skye
The spade-toothed whale was first described in 1874 from a jaw and two teeth, and limited remains of two other specimens followed. Further intact specimens were not found until 2010 and 2017 but these were too long dead to usefully dissect.
Right whale, wrong place
Not long after this discovery, the first sighting of a North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) off Ireland in more than a century on 15 July was being validated by the Irish Whale & Dolphin Group (IWDG).
The whale had been seen tail-fluking (lifting its tail above the surface before a deep dive) in Donegal Bay off the north-west coast, and later lying motionless at the surface. Normally such observations are confined to humpback whales on the eastern side of the Atlantic.
IWDG experts quickly narrowed the possibilities to the “functionally extinct” North Atlantic right whale or a bowhead whale and, after consulting other experts in North America, ruled out the bowhead in favour of the former species, largely based on footage revealing the crusting effects of lice on the whale’s head. The whale was thought to have been diving in the area to feed on copepods.
“This is an exceptionally rare record for the Eastern Atlantic, where this species has been largely absent for decades, if not longer,” said IWDG sightings officer Pádraig Whooley. “We can make a convincing argument that the last positive identification of this species in Ireland dates back to 1910.”
Right whales were given the name by appreciative early whale-hunters because they stayed conveniently close to shore, were inquisitive around boats and floated when killed. They can grow up to 16m long.
The few hundred that are known to remain are found along the USA’s east coast are considered vulnerable to ship strike and fishing-gear entanglement and so are classed as Critically Endangered. Roaming individuals have been identified off Norway and the Azores in the past.
The New England Aquarium keeps a catalogue of known North Atlantic right whale individuals based on their whale-lice markings and it hopes to be able to identify the wandering whale.
Humpback stays close
Also on 15 July, marine mammal medic Beth Clyne reported spending three days tracking a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) as it moved south along England’s North-east coast. The whale was feeding constantly as it followed an apparent herring migration.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust said it was rare for a humpback to be spotted so close inshore and over consecutive days, but it was believed to be the same individual that had been spotted off Scarborough on 9 July. Humpbacks are sometimes seen off Flamborough headland but usually much further out.
Clyne, a British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) volunteer, first spotted the whale near Withernsea and said that it had since moved to Easington and Kilnsea. Humpback whales are usually seen off England between July and September.
Also on Divernet: WHY EVERY BLUE CONTAINS A BIT OF FIN WHALE, FIN WHALES WELCOMED BACK TO ANTARCTICA, FEMALE KILLERS V BLUE WHALE – A WORLD-FIRST, DEATH OF MAN WHO ‘SAVED THE WHALE’
