Right Whales are Headed Towards Extinction


Right Whales live in the northern Atlantic ocean and are one of the most studied and well-understood species in the world. Recently more and more Right Whales have been dying and this is indirectly because of global warming. The Right Whales normally live in a protected habitat but warming ocean waters have driven them out of that habitat and into unprotected waters. Without the protection, the whales are susceptible to lethal ship strikes, disastrous commercial fishing entanglements, and greatly reduced calving rates. While the ocean is not warming from the atmosphere or climate change in this area, it is still related to global warming. Global warming has caused the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which was mentioned in an earlier blog post, to slow down, which injects warmer and saltier water into the North Atlantic. The warming has reduced copepods which are one of the whales' favorite foods and has led them to leave the area in search of food. The whale calving rate has dropped 26% as the whales are not able to feed in their normal breeding grounds. Once the whales leave their habitat their mortality rate increases drastically and there have been no policy changes to adjust. The whale population is down to just 356 when at the beginning of the decade it was at over 500. This issue with the Right Whales is just another example of how climate change is affecting our world. This problem needs to first be attacked through government policy to get the whales more protection but also on a bigger scale it has the same solutions as global warming. 

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