Summertime whale sightings, in recent years, have become so common off the beaches of the South Fork that, frequently, swimmers and sunbathers don’t even stand up to point and attempt to catch pictures anymore — just say “Whoa!” and admire them from the comfort of our beach chairs.
Usually, the whales we see frolicking and feeding are humpbacks, which, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, grow up to 60 feet long in adulthood and weigh about 60 tons. You can recognize them when they breach because they are black and have a fin on their smooth back. Over Labor Day weekend, humpbacks (both mature and juvenile) were reported every day — at Indian Wells, Main Beach, Egypt Beach, and Montauk. They breach as they corral small fish, such as bunker, and sometimes slap their tales theatrically.
It’s become common knowledge around here that the summertime humpback show is a result of a resurgence in the numbers of bunker fish, or menhaden, in our coastal waters. The bunker came back, and so did the whales. Anecdotally, this year wasn’t actually much of a busy one for whale sightings from shore; they only arrived in late August, rather than earlier in the season.
A word of warning, however: The frequency with which we see these beloved mammals may be diluting our grasp of just how intensely endangered some other types of whales are.
Spare a thought for the right whale. There are only 384 North Atlantic right whales left on this earth, and about 20 percent of those — according to scientists at the New England Aquarium, which has been tracking right whale sightings since 1935 — are injured or ill. According to the National Resources Defense Council, some 86 percent of the surviving right whales bear the scars of entanglements or ship strikes.
The right whale is “our” whale. The whale our forebears learned to hunt and kill in the surf from the native Shinnecocks and Montauketts in the 17th century, and then pursued in ships to all corners of the globe. The right whale is the snub-nosed one, the one whose ungainly silhouette adorns weathervanes and needlepoint belts from here to Nantucket.
Would you be surprised to learn that on Sept. 1, the House of Representatives passed a bill that pushes the right whale even closer to extinction? It’s H.R. 9436, the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act, and in a heavily partisan vote it was backed by the Republican majority, including our congressman, Representative Nick LaLota. In essence, the act delays measures that would have forced lobster and Jonah crab fishermen to implement new methods and use new equipment in order to reduce the number of whale entanglements in lobster traps, pots, and lines. According to National Fisherman, the industry’s leading journal, the new legislation extends until 2035 a pause on emergency federal protections that would have helped the whales live to see another day.
Who among us wants to live in a world in which there no longer are right whales? Like the silverback gorilla, the buffalo, and the elephant, the right whale occupies a special place in humans’ culture and our imagination. We simply cannot let it disappear from this earth.
Before H.R. 9436 becomes law, it will need to be passed by the Senate next — either as a stand-alone bill or snuck into other, larger legislation (like an appropriations or other must-pass bill) — before being signed off on by the president. We suggest you call the Long Island offices of Senator Chuck Schumer at 631-753-0978 and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand at 631-249-2825, explain that you are a resident and a voter, and let them know you won’t stand for it.
Finally, consider the fact that the humpbacks’ resurgence, which followed the bunkers’ resurgence, was a direct result of conservation measures similar to those thwarted by the Republican Congress and the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act — including state-directed rules on net size followed by coastwide catch caps and quotas that began only in 2012. The roaring bunker-humpback success is proof not just that these protections work, but that commercial fishing and conservation can work side by side.