Volume 237, March 6, 2023

Cape Cod Canal's Got Right Whales!

Sunday, March 5, three right whales were discovered in the Cape Cod Canal. The 17.4-mile passage between Buzzards Bay and Massachusetts Bay was shut down to all traffic to make way for right whales. Monday morning, the Cape Cod Canal remains closed while the plankton-feeding whales take their time.

(The Cape Cod Canal shortens a 180-mile voyage around Cape Cod and the Islands to Boston to about 80 miles.)

During past spring seasons, right whales have lingered by the Sandwich entrance to the canal in Cape Cod Bay. All vessels were alerted to keep a sharp watch and proceed cautiously. Historically, the whale frequent Cape Cod Bay's eastern shore from Wellfleet to Race Point Provincetown. Whales in the Cape Cod Canal are a new behavior.

Caroline Goggin of WHDH 7 News filed this video report and interviewed Dr. Michael Moore of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Moore drew on nearly forty years of fieldwork with whales, including shadowing whalers and administering sedatives to harpooned whales, to write the book: We Are All Whalers, The Plight of Whales, and Our Responsibility.

Wherever you may be, you can help save whales.

Whales benefit us all. The government has a responsibility to protect whales with legislation and regulations. Unfortunately, our government is reluctant to act, especially if it costs money. Lawmakers act when their constituents push them to.

This is the time to take the helm, hands on the wheel to steer for the destiny of whales.

The passage of responsible legislation has become more difficult. We overcome adversity with more people stepping up and taking shorter turns at the wheel.

Whales need you to act locally in small ways.

You can help us go the distance to help whales by joining ORI’s Round-up Change Program.

Every time you make a purchase, your credit card will round-up to the dollar amount and hold the pennies for ORI. Only when at least $10 is saved over the course of a month, will it be gifted to ORI. If less than $10 is accumulated in a month, then no funds are transferred, and the accumulation process begins again at zero.

At the Ocean River Institute, the many mice of small gifts can make a whale of a difference during the long watch.

Spare change to save whales.

Connect a credit card to round-up to dollar amount.