Why are the whales back in New York?
Dr. Howard Rosenbaum describes the research being done by the Ocean Giants Program and how a fish may have led to the return of whales to the area.
Vocabulary: wildlife conservation, marine life, acoustic monitoring buoy, surveys, tissue sample
Next Generation Science Standards: LS2.C-Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience, SEP2-Developing and Using Models, and CCC2-Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Explanation. Can be used to approach MS-LS2–1, MS-LS2–3, MS-LS2–4, HS-LS2–1, HS-LS2–4, HS-LS2–6, and HS-LS2–7.
Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9–10.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11–12.1
Within sight of the famous New York skyline, you might see something unexpected — whales. Vast schools of menhaden baitfish swirl in the New York Bight, just a few short miles from downtown Manhattan, luring numerous whale species to feed.
Although breathtaking sights like these were unheard of just a decade ago in the waters off New York City, scientists say they signal a wildlife resurgence underway. Howard Rosenbaum, senior scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society, explains why the whales have returned and how researchers are tracking the phenomenon in real time.
Note: The minke whale photo in this video is actually a subspecies called the dwarf minke whale, which is not found in New York waters.
Questions
- Why are whales back in the New York Bight?
- When doing a boat-based survey, what visual cues might indicate the presence of a whale?
- Why do you think the project uses both acoustic monitoring and boat-based surveys? What might be the advantages and drawbacks of each survey method?
- Why does Dr. Rosenbaum attribute the whale’s return to good fisheries management?
- How might noise associated with shipping and other activities affect wildlife? How would you propose scientists study the effects of that noise? What kind of data would you suggest they collect.
Activity Suggestions
- Dr. Howard Rosenbaum and his team are concerned about the impact of shipping lanes on large wildlife in the New York Bight. Have students use maps and whale sighting data to decide on a new traffic scheme for Boston that helps wildlife without interfering with the local shipping industry.
- Have students play a game that models dynamics of a simple food chain, and then improve the model by making their own rules that better account for the ways that food chains work. As an extension, have students research the whales mentioned in the videos and their food sources and reconstruct the the food chains they have researched.
- What are the visual cues that scientists use to identify individual North Atlantic right whales? Look at different characteristics that scientists look for and then have students try their hand at whale identification.
Additional Resources
- See more photos of marine life in the New York Bight.
- Fecal plumes make these whales the “engineers” of the ocean ecosystem.