Climate change is altering the patterns of an endangered species in Massachusetts waters. really just a surprise,” said Dr. Dan Pendleton, a researcher at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. decades, so it’s almost a day a year difference. Pendleton, who is the lead author of the new study, found that these changes are due to climate change and may illustrate the need to adjust protective measures for these endangered mammals. However, he and other researchers at the New England Aquarium expected to see the whales arriving earlier in the season rather than later. “On a regional basis, whales react to their environment; they don’t meet our timeline,” Pendleton said. As a result, these changes could affect how authorities regulate things like fishing closures, boating speed limits and marine protected areas. While it may not seem alarming that whales are changing their arrival and departure times at the rate of one day a year, Pendleton says these changed arrivals and departures could lead to future problems. “Over the lifetime of a human being, if this trend were to continue, you would think 100 years – 100 days – all of a sudden, you know, the season starts to reverse,” Pendleton said. Pendleton said these model whales could serve as a canary in a coal mine or, as biologists call them, sentinels of the ecosystem. “They can point to other events happening in the ecosystem that are much harder to detect,” Pendleton said. It is estimated that there are only 336 North Atlantic right whales left in the world’s oceans. Marine biologists say the most critical number is that less than half, just 137 of these whales, are female.
Climate change is altering the habits of an endangered species in Massachusetts waters.
Scientists from the New England Aquarium have released the results of a 20-year study that tracked climate change and its effects on whale behavior.
“The initial reaction was really a surprise,” said Dr. Dan Pendleton, a researcher at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. “The most popular time for right and humpback whales in Cape Cod Bay has moved forward about three weeks over two decades, so that’s almost a day difference per year.
Pendleton, who is the lead author of the new study, found that these changes are due to climate change and may illustrate the need to adjust protective measures for these endangered mammals.
He and other researchers at the New England Aquarium, however, expected to see the whales arriving earlier in the season rather than later.
“On a regional basis, whales react to their environment; they don’t meet our timeline,” Pendleton said.
Therefore, these changes could affect how authorities regulate things like fishing closures, boating speed limits and marine protected areas.
While it may not seem alarming that whales are changing their arrival and departure times at the rate of one day a year, Pendleton says these changed arrivals and departures could lead to future problems.
“Over the lifetime of a human being, if this trend were to continue, you would think 100 years – 100 days – all of a sudden, you know, the season starts to reverse,” Pendleton said.
Pendleton said these model whales could serve as a canary in a coal mine or, as biologists call them, sentinels of the ecosystem.
“They can point to other events happening in the ecosystem that are much harder to detect,” Pendleton said.
It is estimated that there are only 336 North Atlantic right whales left in the world’s oceans. Marine biologists say the most critical number is that less than half, just 137 of these whales, are female.
