Greetings from the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary . Pat Gerrior of the National Marine Fisheries Service's Right Whale Alert Network has informed me that the mother-calf pair sighted off Long Island several weeks ago is apparently one of the pairs observed down south. Meanwhile, another four whales have been spotted near the Boston Traffic Lanes just outside the Great South Channel Critical Habitat. This area is usually quite popular with the right whales later in the spring.
Impacts can crush skulls and break backbones, and propellers can cut deeply into blubber and flesh.
Scientists are working on possible solutions to this problem including uses of sonar and sound for collision-avoidance systems. Sighting networks are attempting to warn shipping when vessels are entering right whale habitats. Entanglements in fishing gear and other marine debris also play a role in right whale survival. Lines can block circulation to a flipper or fluke, or can cut into the whale's body so deeply to cause major damage and deadly infections. On a local scale, pollution can poison a whale directly, or indirectly by affecting its food.