Fishermen just a few miles off the coast of South Carolina were treated to a rare sighting of a pair of critically endangered whales.
The Island Packet reported that the crew was fishing near Hilton Head when they encountered two adult North Atlantic right whales. The whales spend most of their time in the colder waters of New England and Canada but migrate south in the winter to breed. The whales were about a week ahead of schedule; calving season usually begins later in the month and lasts through March.
Like other baleen whales, the right whale is vital to the ocean's ecosystem. They help maintain the balance of the food web by consuming vast quantities of zooplankton each day, keeping algal blooms under control. They expel nutrient-rich waste that fertilizes the ocean and are carbon traps. When they perish, they take all that stored carbon with them to provide a banquet for bottom-dwelling creatures.
North Atlantic right whales are one of the whales' three subspecies; the other two are the Southern and North Pacific right whales. They are quite easy to recognize because of their dark and rather stocky bodies and the crown of callosities on their heads. Every right whale has a different callosite pattern, so keeping tabs on individual whales isn't all that difficult. Scientists aren't yet sure what function those irregular patches of rough skin, sometimes called whale lice, serve.
Their name provides a sad hint as to why they're so rare. They are slow-moving, easy to track, and float after being killed, thus they are the "right" whales to hunt. Commercial whaling almost wiped them out entirely. It was estimated that just 60 females were left on the planet in 1920, per the World Wildlife Fund.
The sighting is encouraging, but right whales have a long road ahead to recovery, which is why experts are pushing for sensible local measures to protect them. Whales are easily disturbed by ships, and the current federal restrictions on speed in calving areas only apply to larger vessels and aren't strongly enforced.
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Still, footage taken by the fishermen can play an important role in raising awareness and encouraging stronger laws to give these gentle giants a chance of long-term survival.
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