In search of the few endangered right whales off the Alaskan coast

Doyle Rice | USA TODAY

The federal government is conducting its first survey of endangered right whales in the Gulf of Alaska, hoping to track the few dozen likely still alive, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

“We actually know very little about this species,” said NOAA's Brenda Rone, chief scientist for the cruise. She said the goal is to collect photos, tissue samples and perhaps attach tags to the animals to track their movements.

The North Pacific right whale is the rarest whale in the world and found off the Alaskan coast, once numbered in the tens of thousands. Now, only a few dozen are likely left because of fierce whaling.

Scientists began the search in early August, trying to catch a glimpse and listen to the calls of the mammal. The researchers have already faced gale-force winds and high waves.

"This is the first survey for right whales in the Gulf of Alaska, ever," said Phil Clapham, a NOAA whale expert from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. Other whale surveys of the Bering Sea, between Alaska and Russia where there are a few more whales, have been done in the past, he said.

Clapham said the few whales left in the eastern North Pacific — likely around 30 — are descendants of the estimated 20,000 that swam in region before the 1830s and 1840s, when the whaling industry reduced their numbers by as much as 90%. Whales were killed for their oil and blubber, which was used to light lamps in U.S. and European cities and also as an industrial lubricant.

An illegal whaling campaign by the Soviet Union in the 1960s further decimated the number of right whales, taking out the bulk of the remaining population, he said. The Soviet whaling was done for the mammal's meat.

"it's very sobering to think about how many right whales were caught out here and the fact that we've yet to find a single animal," Rone said last week, midway through the research cruise. She said the scientists have seen other whale species, including the endangered blue whale.

The researchers this week are still waiting to spot their first right whale, but they have recorded a few sounds of the animals underwater, which they say resemble gunshots.

LISTEN:Call of the right whale

Scientists actually know very little about why right whales make these sounds, Rone said.

This species of the right whale is different from other right whales in other oceans, such as in the Atlantic or Southern Oceans, Clapham said. Although the Pacific and Atlantic species look similar, they have been separated from each other for a couple million years.

Right whales were named because they were the "right," as in easiest, whale to kill since they were slow, docile and floated when dead, Clapham explained.

“We remain concerned about human impacts on this small population," Rone said. "For example, how will changes in the Arctic due to climate change, which could open up the Northwest Passage as a shipping route, impact right whales?"

The research cruise should wrap up within the next week.