BOOTHBAY, Maine — A decline in the population of a tiny animal in parts of the Gulf of Maine may be a threat to one of the biggest creatures on earth.
Endangered right whales typically come to the eastern corner of the Gulf of Maine in late summer to feed on tiny plankton, called copepods. But scientist say the favorite, energy-rich copepods, known as Calamus, are becoming more scarce in that part of the Gulf and in the Bay of Fundy, where the whales have typically gone to feed in August and September.
Dr. Nick Record of the Bigelow Laboratory in Boothbay has led a study by a group of scientists that says warmer ocean water, caused by climate change, appears to be harming the Calamus in those waters. He says the rising ocean temperatures at depths of several hundred feet is affecting currents in the eastern part of the Gulf that have harmed the Calamus, which like colder water. Their decline, in turn, is believed to be forcing the whales to look elsewhere for food.
"Imagine you’re a right whale and have to eat thousands of pounds of copepods per day," says Record. "You have this really reliable food source that’s no longer there. Probably the next few years are going to be spent looking around for that next reliable food source. They probably don’t know where it is yet."
Record says right whales appear to be more numerous than usual in the Gulf of St. Lawrence this year, where at least six have been found dead. He says there is speculation whales are searching farther north for the best food source. At the same time, he says Calamus appear to be more numerous than usual in the western Gulf of Maine, closer to New Hampshire and Massachusetts -- areas where right whales have not typically gone to in the past.
The possibility of whales migrating away from the Gulf of Maine has been cited by some as a reason to oppose proposed new federal restrictions on Maine lobstermen, designed to protect whales from becoming tangled in fishing gear. But record says the whales are not going to disappear from the Gulf.