Striped bass fishing has been outstanding this past week as solid catches were reported by the few boats that ventured out. Once again, the area between Race Point Station and the Peaked Hill Bar was the hot spot. Many of these fish have been in the keeper slot size, too.
There have been no bluefish to speak of, so my guess is they have begun to head south to warmer waters. Fluke fishing closed on Sept. 23, but all of us who work on the water are extremely hopeful about fluke fishing next season, given what we saw this fall. It’s been a long 10 years without them.
Scientists from the New England Aquarium reported last month that during a series of flights conducted in July and August they’d documented 82 North Atlantic right whales — that number represents about a quarter of the entire right whale population left on the planet today — in a very odd feeding ground at the Hudson and Block canyons, which are deep-water trenches that lie south and east of Long Island. Hudson Canyon is about 70 miles off the New Jersey shoreline, and Block Canyon is about 50 miles northeast of that.
The team from the aquarium was probably on the lookout because the Northeast Large Whale Aerial Survey team from NOAA had reported that their aerial surveys documented 45 whales clearly feeding there just after Memorial Day weekend. They were familiar with the whales, the NOAA team wrote, because more than two-thirds of them had been in the waters off Massachusetts during the winter and spring. “This tells us that instead of heading northeast to the summer feeding grounds of Bay of Fundy or Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, these animals left New England and went southwest,” said the team. “Something we did not expect.”
This unusual discovery is a reminder of how much we don’t know about right whale migratory patterns. And it raises concerns about whether these whales could be choosing a new migration route that is typically busy with large ship traffic coming in and out of New York Harbor. It’s also an area with a substantial presence of offshore fishing gear and no mandatory speed restrictions in place.
The general feeling in the scientific community familiar with right whale migration is that the whales, which were found among large numbers of other pelagic animals including dolphins, rays, sharks, and turtles, came to the canyons for their plentiful food supplies. Food availability in the ocean tends to vary from area to area and from year to year, and whales and fish are constantly responding and adapting to the ever-changing conditions the oceans present.
Still, this is a highly unusual sighting. Many years ago, I worked at the Hudson Canyon. I was commercial tile fishing, and I never saw large groups of whales out there — just an occasional fin whale. The humpback and right whales all tended to migrate much closer to the coast. The water in that area is warmed by Gulf Stream currents, and it is favored by yellowfin tuna, white marlin, and mahi.
Hudson Canyon is the largest known ocean canyon off the U.S. East Coast, and it’s currently under consideration for a national marine sanctuary designation because of its rich biodiversity, according to NOAA. Whether that happens or not, this discovery comes just as NOAA is considering possible changes to existing speed vessel rules, which could expand areas with seasonal speed restrictions and increase protections for these critically endangered whales.
At this time of year, the whales are heading toward coastal Georgia and Florida, where they breed and give birth in warmer waters — essential for the survival of newborn right whales, who lack thick layers of insulating fat. It will be interesting to see what migratory route these whales choose when they come north again in February and March. That will tell us, perhaps, if this fall canyon route was a one-time food-driven thing or a new pattern.
