Scientists tracked a young #whale's journey before he vanished. What they learned could help save his species.
#Bishop’s story, from birth to presumed death, shows the extreme danger facing right #whales, which could be extinct in 3 decades if they continue to disappear at the present rate. Bishop’s species is not doomed to #extinction …but time is running out.
In most ways #Bishop was a normal #RightWhale. For the first year of his life, his mother nursed & protected him, & he learned to feed by swimming, mouth agape, through patches of plankton floating near the surface.
But on Jan 20, 2015, Bishop became something more: a precious source of data that would help scientists better understand the dangers afflicting his species.
That day, off the coast of New Smyrna Beach, FL, scientists tagged #Bishop w/a satellite transmitter. For the next 50 days, he broadcast his location as he migrated over 1k mi up the #EastCoast. It was one of the longest transmissions of a #NorthAtlantic#RightWhale ever recorded.
…Bishop averaged about 50 mi / day for the rest of his northward journey. By March, he had joined other right #whales to search for food south of Nantucket, MA. On March 11, his tag fell off, ending the transmisison.
So far this year, a dead female turned up off Virginia w/ a dislocated spine, a calf was discovered in Georgia w/head lacerations, & a young female was found — again in Georgia — w/ a fractured skull. All the injuries are consistent with #vessel strikes.