Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Biologists Gain New Insights into Surface, Acoustic Behaviors of Right Whales

Wednesday, October 24, 2018, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Arts and SciencesfacultyResearch and Creative
two whales

North Atlantic Right Whale mother and calf (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/NOAA)

In response to the dwindling number of North Atlantic right whales, researchers in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) have conducted a major study of the surface and acoustic behaviors of right whale mother-calf pairs.

Susan Parks, associate professor of biology, is the senior author of the study, whose findings appear in Animal Conservation (Wiley, 2018).

Parks says the publication is timely, noting the right whales’ declining fertility and rising mortality, exacerbated by a breeding season without any new births—all of which raise concerns about their increased risk of extinction.

“North Atlantic right whales are prone to accidental death or injury from vessels strikes and fishing gear entanglement,” says Parks, who studies the acoustic signaling of marine and terrestrial animals. “On top of this, their calving rates have dropped dramatically since 2010. We must improve the protection measures for these animals or risk their demise.”

head shot

Susan Parks

Along with colleagues from A&S and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Parks studied the behavior of 34 right whale mother-calf pairs in three areas off the coast of United States and Canada. The team collected data from 2011 to 2015, covering the period between birth and weaning.

The team discovered that the near-surface resting behavior of mother-calf pairs dominates the first five months of the calves’ lives.

“These behaviors place the mother-calf pair at increased risk of a ship strike, which may partially explain why the mortality rate [among calves] is high,” says Parks, adding that mariners often have trouble spotting right whales at sea.

She and her colleagues also noticed that, during the calves’ early months, the mother-calf call-rates were extremely low—possibly a defense mechanism against potential enemies or hungry predators.

head shot

Cusano

Lead author Dana Cusano was an assistant in the Parks Lab from 2012-16. She says that using traditional acoustic methods to monitor mother-calf pairs on their calving grounds is not feasible with right whales.

“We need visual surveys to keep track of their movements, so we can alert vessels, if we find the whales in a high-traffic area,” adds Cusano, a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Queensland, Australia.

Cusano goes on to say that the risk of entanglement or a vessel strike does not decrease as the mother-calf pair becomes more active with age. “Each habitat raises new vulnerabilities and concerns. Understanding the behavioral ecology of a species is fundamental to effective conservation and management efforts,” she says.

Parks and Cusano co-authored the article with two scientists from NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center: Lisa Conger, a research fishery biologist, and Sofie Van Parijs, director of the center’s Passive Acoustic Research group.

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • Star Scholar: Julia Fancher Earns Second Astronaut Scholarship for Stellar Research
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Kelly Homan Rodoski
  • Traugott Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Bing Dong to Present at Prestigious AI Conference
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Emma Ertinger
  • Maxwell’s Robert Rubinstein Honored With 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By News Staff
  • National Ice Cream Day: We Tried Every Special at ’Cuse Scoops So You Don’t Have To
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By News Staff
  • Message From Chief Student Experience Officer Allen W. Groves
    Monday, July 14, 2025, By News Staff

More In STEM

Star Scholar: Julia Fancher Earns Second Astronaut Scholarship for Stellar Research

Julia Fancher, a rising senior majoring in physics and mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), a logic minor in A&S and a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program, has been renewed as an Astronaut Scholar for…

Traugott Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Bing Dong to Present at Prestigious AI Conference

Professor Bing Dong was recently selected to lead a workshop on artificial intelligence (AI) at NeurIPS, the Conference and Workshop on Neural Information Processing Systems. Founded in 1987, NeurIPS is one of the most prestigious annual conferences dedicated to machine learning and AI research. Dong’s workshop…

6 A&S Physicists Awarded Breakthrough Prize

Our universe is dominated by matter and contains hardly any antimatter, a notion which still perplexes top scientists researching at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The Big Bang created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, but now nearly everything—solid, liquid, gas or plasma—is…

Setting the Standard and Ensuring Justice

Everyone knows DNA plays a crucial role in solving crimes—but what happens when the evidence is of low quantity, degraded or comes from multiple individuals? One of the major challenges for forensic laboratories is interpreting this type of DNA data…

Student Innovations Shine at 2025 Invent@SU Presentations

Eight teams of engineering students presented designs for original devices to industry experts and investors at Invent@SU Final Presentations. This six-week summer program allows students to design, prototype and pitch their inventions to judges. During the program, students learn about…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.