Right Whales 2024 Season on Cape Cod

Endangered right whales return each year to Cape Cod bay to enjoy a generous buffet of zooplankton. Dr. Charles 'Stormy' Mayo shares highlights from the 2024 season and the challenges facing this critically endangered population.

Do whales come to Cape Cod?

04 June 2024 — PROVINCETOWN, MA — Each year Cape Codders enjoy the comings and goings of the North Atlantic Right Whales. Between January and May, these giant, almost prehistoric-looking mammals make their way to Cape Cod Bay to feast on the water's abundance of zooplankton.  The season of 2024 has been no exception.

In this short conversation, Dr. Charles 'Stormy' Mayo, co-founder of the Center for Coastal Studies and right whale expert, shares the current plight of the species and the challenges facing its critically endangered population.

What threatens the whale population?

The right whales have become endangered from many forms of human interaction - everything from being hit and literally sliced to bits by boat propellers, to slow-death due to entanglements in ropes and nets, to shifts in the North Atlantic ecosystem because of climate change and warming waters.

Only 360 right whales remain in the world. A known 19 calves were born this year, but five have already died including one calf killed by a ship strike, and another mother/calf pair killed by a different ship strike off the coast of Virginia.

What can protect the right whales?

Changes in fisheries techniques as well as ways to protect whales from ship strikes lead the list of needed protections. While in Cape Cod Bay,  the whales are relatively safe. Travel lanes for enormous cargo vessels and boat speed control help offer protection from ship strikes, while collaboration, awareness, and rescue partnerships offer some mitigation from entanglement death. These solutions may bring whales a place to feed and rest and also hint at approaches to management of our waters that could change the dynamics between whales and humans.