Finback whales thriving in waters from NY to Cape May
When it comes to housing massive sea life, New Jersey is a whale of an area.
Whales are thriving as our neighbors, according to a study conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientists in the journal “Scientific Reports.”
The report states there's new information that shows "the presence and potential subpopulation distribution of fin in waters off New York and New Jersey ranging from Montauk, New York, to Cape May."
The information is helpful when developing best practices to protect endangered fin whales. According to the release, "Management strategies can be implemented seasonally if a species is only present at certain times of the year. However, when endangered animals are present year-round, seasonal strategies can leave these animals susceptible to various threats at certain times of year."
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Still, more research is needed, but this could be a breakthrough discovery.
“More information is needed about the distribution and behavior of fin whales within the New York Bight to help inform how this endangered species can be protected from the range of potential stressors and threats encountered year-round in these waters,” said Dr. Mindi Rekdahl, who co-authored the study. She is an associate marine conservation scientist with the Ocean Giants Program at WCS.
“To fill this knowledge gap, we used passive acoustic monitoring to examine monthly and yearly patterns in fin whale song from 2017 to 2020," added lead author Carissa King-Nolan, a WCS assistant marine conservation scientist. "These song patterns gave us valuable insight into the year-round presence and behavior of fin whales.”
The study, which used recordings from 653 days for the presence of fin whale songs, said the whales' singing was most prevalent from September to December, followed by the springtime in March and April.
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"Songs during the fall to winter had short intervals between notes, and this likely represented breeding behavior while songs with longer note intervals during the spring likely represented foraging behavior," the release said. "The results of this study, combined with other recent research, indicate that the New York Bight is an important year-round habitat for both foraging and breeding fin whales."
Who knew these whales were from the Garden State?
“Perhaps it is time to give some further consideration to fin whales as NY/NJ’s whale," said Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, who co-authored the study. "While they may not be seen as close to shore as other whales and dolphins, it is truly remarkable that the second largest animal to have ever lived on this Earth is here in the New York Bight year-round off our coasts. Hopefully, our efforts will lead to more efforts and best practices to better protect these amazing, endangered animals in the NY Bight.”
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Whale NJ: Gentle giants find home along Jersey Shore
