Dead right whales show evidence of collision with vessels, wildlife pathologist says

Two of the right whales found dead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence bore signs of trauma suggesting they collidedwith ships, says the wildlife pathologist leading the investigation into why six right whales turned up dead in the gulf in June.

"The negative interactions with vessels can be an issue in the Gulf of St. Lawrence," Dr. Pierre-YvesDaoustof the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown said Tuesday on Information Morning Fredericton.

The discovery of the six endangeredNorth Atlantic right whales floating dead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence broughtmore than40 people from various organizations to the shores of western P.E.I. to study three of the carcasses.

Preliminary results from the three necropsies done in Norway, P.E.I., last week showevidence of blunt trauma in two of the whales and an "entanglement" in another, Daoust said.

• Preliminary results of whale necropsies on P.E.I. released
• 3rd right whale necropsy in as many days

He wants the Canadian Coast Guard and industry to discuss how topreventing these"negative interactions," along the East Coast of Canada and the U.S.

"I would welcome the start of a discussion about this kind of potentialinteractionbetweenan endangered species like the right whale, and the fishing industry and the shippingindustry."

With only 525 right whales remaining,the recent "unprecedented die-off" represents more thanone per cent of the population, the Marine Animal Response Society said in a news release Monday.

Vessels moving at high speed

Daoust suggested a reduction in vessel speed could reduce the number of collisions with whales.

Vessels in the Gulf of St. Lawrence tend to move at a high speed, which can potentially harm right whales that come into the gulf to feed.

Rightwhalesactively feed, divinginto deep waters for about 20 minutes, he said. Often, they returnto the surface just where their dives started.

Now is the time to consider how best to make sure the Gulf of St. Lawrence is a suitable habitat for them.- Dr. Pierre-YvesDaoust

"It's quite possible that a large vessel that was many nautical miles away when they started diving, as they surfaced, this vessel may be much closer," he said.

"It may be very difficult for those whales to move fast enough out of the path of those vessels to avoid the strike."

A number of possibilities

Because of the right whales' decomposition, there are possible causes of death thatcannot be confirmed or ruled out, Daoust said.

There's also a chance the Bay of Fundymay not be the good environment it once was for the whales.

"In the winter they were further south," he said. "In the summer they came into the Bay of Fundy to feed very extensively, andthere may have been a decrease in the amount of[plankton] in the Bay of Fundy."

These theories bring bigger questions into play about the ecology of the ocean that need to be addressed, Daoust said.

Toxic bloom possible

Experts are also not ruling out factors such as bio toxins produced by algae bloomas the cause of death.

"Now is the time to consider how best to make sure the Gulf of St. Lawrence is a suitable habitat for them," he said.

Scientists who took part in the necropsies have left the Island with samples and expect to have a formal report in about a month.