Evidence of right whales found off Greenland

WASHINGTON -- Government scientists believe they have some good news about the endangered right whale, whose population in the Atlantic Ocean is struggling to come back.

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday they have found evidence of a significant right whale population in waters off the southern tip of Greenland. The whale was thought to have largely disappeared from that area decades ago. Only two of the whales have been sighted in the area in the last 50 years.

But now scientists, over a year-long period, recorded 2,000 whale calls from underwater listening devices in the area. No whales were sighted.

There are 300 to 400 North Atlantic right whales off the U.S. Atlantic coast. It is not known whether the newly discovered whales in an area known as the Cape Farewell Ground, 200 miles to 400 miles (320 kilometers to 640 kilometers) off Greenland, are a separate population of right whales or ones that migrated from U.S. waters.

The discovery raises the possibility that the eastern North Atlantic right whale population, believed by many to be extinct, may still exist, said David Mellinger, a chief scientist at NOAA who presented the team's findings Wednesday at an Acoustical Society of America meeting in Portland, Oregon.

Mellinger said in a telephone interview with several reporters that no whales were sighted during the year-long monitoring effort, but that by triangulating the five underwater listening devices it is certain at least three whales could be heard. "It gives us greater confidence that there are a significant number of right whales in the area," he said.

The North Atlantic right whale is protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act as well as international treaty. Over the centuries its population was devastated by whaling, especially in the eastern North Atlantic between Greenland and Iceland. Off the United States, fewer than 400 right whales are known to migrate annually between their southern Atlantic breeding grounds to feeding areas off New England.