News

Whale expert captivates Rockport students

By Jonathan L'Ecuyer
Staff Writer
Published: January 13, 2009

ROCKPORT — The North Atlantic right whale population is enjoying the best protection its ever had, but there's still much work to be done to ensure the species' survival, cetacean expert Dr. Moira Brown told a captivated audience of fourth- and fifth-graders at Rockport Elementary School last week.

Brown, of Rowley and a member of the New England Aquarium's North Atlantic right whale research team, spoke to the students about the work the team is doing to save the 419 right whales left in Atlantic waters.

As the Canadian native held up a giant vertebra and equally giant rib bone while spouting off dozens of right whale factoids, many of the children, unable to contain their amazement, bellowed "wow." At other times, such as when Brown disclosed no fewer than 1 million lice live on a single right whale, the grossed-out fifth-graders uttered a collective "eww."

Brown, who worked firsthand last August and September in the Bay of Fundy in Maine researching and tracking the whales there, only does two school visits per year, but agreed to come to Rockport this year thanks to a request from school supporter Diana McCloy.

Right whales were hunted for their baleen and oils to the brink of extinction in the 19th century before a ban was placed on killing the nearly 70-ton creatures in the early 1930s. The whales were nicknamed right whales by sailors because they were the easy targets, making them the "right" whales to kill.

However, the future looks bright for \ right whales, Brown indicated, as regulations going into effect this year include heavier fishing lines designed to sink deeper into the water and present less of an opportunity for entanglement as well as a long-delayed regulation requiring commercial ships to slow to 10 knots inside a 30-mile "bubble" near busy ports when right whales are known to be in the area.

"I'm optimistic the right whale population will increase," said Brown, who also works for the Canadian Whale Institute. "That's the goal of all of our work. What I try to get across (to students) is that people need to work with other people to help whales survive; humans are working very hard to try and give space to the whales."

As Brown concluded her slide show, she opened the presentation up for questions; so many poured in that Principal Shawn Maguire eventually had to cut them off.

"Where do they live," one boy asked.

"Do whales do better in the wild or in captivity," another girl queried.

Brown explained how the whales migrate up and down the Eastern Seaboard and also touched upon the excitement surrounding the discovery of a possible new breeding ground.

Last week, researchers discovered that a large number of right whales, as many as 44 individuals, were seen in the Jordan Basin in the Gulf of Maine, 80 miles north of Gloucester. The observation is leading the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast Fisheries Science Center to believe that right whales may have a winter breeding ground much farther north than the known breeding grounds in Florida and Georgia.

"What's cool about this," Brown said, "is researchers have been seeing the whales there in late fall for four years now; they're consistently coming back every year, it's the first time (scientists) have found a location where whales aggregate (this far north)."

Brown's visit is part of a larger effort launched last year by Maguire to create a designated science center in the school. Maguire plans to bring in several more working Cape Ann scientists this year, including Lauren Higgins of Rockport, a biologist from New England Biolabs in Ipswich, astronomer Bill Waller of Rockport, and marine biologist Mark Murry-Brown of Gloucester.

McCloy said the goal is to get children excited about science by hearing about all the ways science is used in studying the world.

Maguire plans to dedicate a room for use as a science center, complete with aquariums and small animals with the help of a $2,000 grant from New England Biolabs and $500 from the Rockport PTO.

"Through (McCloy's help) we'll have a guest speaker once a month through the end of the school year," Maguire said. "What's really impressive is the caliber of the speakers; they're world-renowned experts."

Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.

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Photos

None/Staff Photographer

Mary Muckenhoupt/Gloucester Daily Times Moira Brown, a member of the New England Aquarium’s North Atlantic right whale research team, shows the size of a whale tooth while talking to the fourth- and fifth-grade classes of Rockport Elementary School. Brown spoke about the work being done to save the right whale found just off Cape Ann’s coast. The tooth she was showing was from a killer whale. Right whales eat with their finely fringed baleen.