Canal closes while right whale mother, calf swim through

The Cape Cod Canal was closed for more than five hours while a female North Atlantic right whale and her calf were escorted as they swam through the canal.

A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Environmental Police department said the canal was closed at noon Sunday and that the whales were heading westbound.

At about 4:30 p.m., the MEP spokesperson said the whales had made it out of the canal and into Cape Cod Bay. The canal was closed until at least 5:30 p.m. to ensure the whales did not re-enter the waterway.

According to police, traffic was not backed up early in the afternoon and that one car carrier opted to navigate around Cape Cod instead of waiting for the canal was reopened.

The Army Corps of Engineers closed the Cape Cod Canal to traffic whenever a right whale is spotted in the waterway.

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Environmental police did not identify the mother and calf who are swimming in the canal, but on Saturday, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shared rare video of a right whale calf feeding while swimming under her 41-year-old mother, Spindle. Watch that video in the player above.

On Friday, the Massachusetts Environmental Police said that approximately 60 to 70 North Atlantic right whales — about 20% of all the North Atlantic right whales left on Earth — are gathered in lower Cape Cod Bay.

Of those, about half are north of the Cape Cod Canal, and the others are about 3/4 of a mile from the east end of the canal.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates there are fewer than 350 of the animals left in the world.

The canal remains open. There are two Massachusetts Environmental Police patrol vessels and an Army Corp of Engineers vessel making sure other maritime traffic passes safely.

Earlier in the day on Friday, three whales swam in Scusset Harbor. Experts with the New England Aquarium were able to identify one of them from the pictures as Oakley, a 22-year-old male.

Last week, the season’s first North Atlantic right whale mother and calf pair were spotted in Cape Cod Bay, the Center for Coastal Studies said.

On March 18, the CCS’s Right Whale Ecology Program team saw a whale named Porcia and her 2023 calf. Porcia, a 21-year-old right whale, was first seen with her new calf in late December off the coast of Georgia.

Earlier in March, a pair of right whales were spotted swimming in the canal.

The North Atlantic right whale is critically endangered, with an estimated 340 animals remaining, and protected under the federal Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. That designation legally prohibits boats and aircraft from approaching within 500 yards of them. It also restricts vessel speeds in designated areas, including Cape Cod waters.

The right whale’s greatest threats to survival are being struck by a vessel or becoming entangled in rope.

On March 29, CCS's Marine Animal Entanglement Response team removed 200 feet of entangling rope from a North Atlantic right whale found in Cape Cod Bay, but the whale remained entangled.

The whale was outfitted with a tracker in hopes teams will have another opportunity for further disentanglement attempts.

So far this year, 12 right whale calves have been identified in the waters off the southeast United States, where they are born.

Video: Right whale mom, calf spotted off Cape Cod

Video: Endangered right whales seen swimming up Cape Cod Canal

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