Sciency Thoughts: Nova Scotia

Wednesday, 25 September 2019

Immature Blue Whale washes up dead on coast of Nova Scotia.

A juvenile Blue Whale, Balaenoptera musculus, has been found on the coast of Nova Scotia. The Whale, judged to be a juvenile as it is only 18.8 m in length (compared to around 30 m for adults of the species) was first sighted Sutherland's Cove, about six kilometres north of Port Hawkesbury on Wednesday 18 September 2019. It was originally hoped that a necropsy (animal autopsy) could be performed on the Whale, as there have been concerns about Whales in the area being injured or killed by ship strikes or after becoming entangled in abandoned fishing nets, but Fisheries and Oceans Canada have now ruled this out, due to the remote location of the corpse and its advanced state of decay.

The body of an immature Blue Whale found at Sutherland's Cove on the coast of Nova Scotia on 18 September 2019. Carol Morris/The Chronicle Herald.

Blue Whales are the largest animals living on Earth today, and are larger than any known animal in the fossil record, with adults reaching around 30 m in length (some Sauropod Dinosaurs are thought to have been slightly longer, but much less bulky). The species was hunted to the brink of extinction during the twentieth century, before a moratorium on hunting the species was introduced in 1966, since when the species has begun to recover. There are currently thought to be somewhere between 10 000 and 25 000 Blue Wales living today, with the species being classified as Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Humpback Whale seen floating dead off the coast of Brier Island, Nova Scotia.

The Marine Animal Response Society and Canadian Coast Guard are investigating after a dead Humpback Whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, was seen floating off the coast of Brier Island, Nova Scotia, on Friday 7 September 2018. The dead animal is believed to be an adult female well known to Whale watchers under the name of Peajack, who has lived in the area since 1995 and raised two calves during that time. The cause of the death has not yet been established, but the carcass appeared to be entangled in some sort of rope or net.

A female Humpback Whale floating off the coast of Brier Island, Nova Scotia, on 7 September 2018. The ballooning in is the tongue of the animal, which becomes swollen in the decomposition process. Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises.

Humpback Whales were nearly exterminated by commercial Whaling in the first part of the twentieth century. The species has been protected since 1946, and in recent years their population has appeared to be recovering in many areas, however they are still considered to be a species of special concern under the Canadian Species at Risk Act. This is the third report of a dead Humpback on the east Canadian coast this year, with two other deaths reported in the Bay of Fundy and off the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. There have also been many reports of Whales appearing to be underweight, raising concerns that they may be impacted by the Herring fishing industry.