Significant aggregations of the endangered Right Whale, Eubalaena glacialis, on the continental shelf of Nova Scotia

Abstract

Sixty-one Right Whale sightings (totaling 230 whales) were made near Browns and Baccaro banks on the Nova Scotian shelf during surveys conducted from 1981 to 1985. Fifty individual Right Whales were identified and 34 of these were re-sighted at other locations including four from the of Georgia-Florida coast [USA] (n = 25), 20 from the Bay of Fundy (n = 130), and 10 from the southern Gulf of Maine (n = 55). Forty percent of the Right Whales sighted were in surface-active-groups, a behavior possibly related to courtship activity. Eight defecations were observed; the two samples collected contained undigested mandibles of the copepod Calanus finmarchicus. These results indicate the Nova Scotian continental shelf is a summer-fall right Whale habitat used for social activities and feeding.