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Researchers counted 44 of the endangered mammals about 100 miles offshore – a record winter sighting.

By JOHN RICHARDSON, Staff Writer January 1, 2009

Because they are in danger of extinction, North Atlantic right whales are some of the most closely watched creatures in the sea.

Researchers fly over the East Coast looking for them and then, when they find one, zoom in for close-up photos. Many of the individual whales even have names and files containing their photos and life histories.

Until now, however, scientists have had few clues about where many of the whales go in winter, when winds and stormy weather make the search more difficult.

Federal researchers announced Wednesday that an unusually large number of right whales have gathered in recent weeks off the Maine coast in what appears to be a wintering ground, and potentially a breeding ground, for the endangered species. The discovery is expected to enhance efforts to save and restore the population, which now stands at an estimated 325 animals.

Forty-four right whales were seen Dec. 3 in the Jordan Basin area, which lies about 70 miles south of Bar Harbor and 100 miles east of Portland, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Forty-one whales were spotted just west of Jordan Basin on Dec. 14, it said. Bad weather has prevented more recent flights to the area, according to the agency.

For years, NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center has used small planes to monitor and track migrating right whales along the East Coast, but this congregation had not been seen before.

"We're excited because seeing 44 right whales together in the Gulf of Maine is a record for the winter months," said Tim Cole, who heads the aerial survey team, in the agency's written announcement. It's more common to see three or five whales at a time, he said.

Because right whales dive beneath the surface to feed in winter, Cole said, "seeing so many of them at the surface when we are flying over an area is a bit of luck."

It also was the result of an intensified effort to zero in on the whales' winter habitats, said Shelley Dawicki, a spokeswoman for the agency. In recent years, more coordinated winter flyovers have helped pinpoint potential gathering spots, she said. "Knowing where they are will certainly be helpful," she said.

The species was hunted nearly to extinction, and got its name as the "right" whale to harpoon because blubber kept them afloat after they were killed.

Now, ship collisions and entanglements in fishing gear are the two biggest human threats to the species.

Sightings of right whales trigger warnings to mariners to steer clear and requirements that fishermen keep gear away from the animals to prevent entanglements.

Research on their migration patterns has led to speed limits along parts of the East Coast, as well as lobster gear regulations along the Maine coast.

New discoveries like the one announced Wednesday should help focus protection efforts on the areas where the whales are, instead of where they are not, said George Lapointe, commissioner of Maine's Department of Marine Resources.

"The better science we have, the less uncertainty and the more we can kind of target our management," Lapointe said. Uncertainty, he said, can lead to protection rules that are more restrictive and more widespread.

Maine lobstermen have long argued that fishing and gear restrictions intended to prevent whales from getting entangled are based on spotty, and old, records of whale sightings. Some rules, for example, have required fishermen to modify their gear within three miles of shore, where they say whales are rarely present.

"We just didn't have enough data on the feeding patterns and migration patterns," said Mike Dassatt, a lobsterman in Belfast. "We can never know enough."

The area where the whales were spotted is too far offshore for most lobstermen in Maine to work, so there is little risk of entanglements, Dassatt said. "If that's where they're going in the winter time, there's not that many...