North Atlantic Right Whale Sighted Off South Carolina
December 27, 2018

North Atlantic right whale off the coast of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina on December 23, 2018
credit: Chip Michalove

A North Atlantic right whale was sighted off the coast of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina on December 23, 2018. Hilton Head charter captain Chip Michalove photographed the whale after it surfaced near his boat and estimated the whale to be 50 feet long. The Island Packet reported, "Michalove said he kept a safe distance from the whale after it first surfaced and slowly backed away the charter, as it’s illegal to be within 1,500 yards from any right whale, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration." Michalove also reported that lots of bottlenose dolphins were swimming near the whale. The picture that has been released doesn't show enough markings to identify the individual whale but at 50 feet long it sounds like an adult right whale.

There have been multiple sightings of right whales off the southeastern US in December including a sighting of a right whale near North Carolina on December 7th, two adult female right whales off Georgia on December 12th and two each on December 17th and December 23rd that were also off the Georgia coast. However, there have only been three confirmed sightings of North Atlantic right whales off the coast of South Carolina in the past five years (two individual sightings on December 12, 2015 and one on January 1, 2016) with a probable sighting of three right whales on October 23, 2016, according to the NEFSC map of right whale sightings. Since the South Carolina coast is not known as an area where North Atlantic right whales congregate in large numbers, there are no dedicated survey efforts that we know of but we know that many of them must travel through the area on their way to their calving grounds off Georgia and Florida.

There is currently a mandatory 10-knot speed restriction off the coast of South Carolina that's in place from November 1st - April 30th as their coast is covered by the Mid-Atlantic Seasonal Management (SMA) area that stretches from the bottom of North Carolina to about halfway down the coast of Georgia. The Savannah Morning News - reporting on the Georgia sightings - stated, "New this year is an underwater surveillance system listening for whales around Cape Hatteras [North Carolina]. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the U.S. Navy and NOAA deployed autonomous underwater gliders equipped with hydrophones to listen for right whales calling to each other and give the survey team a heads up about their migratory progress." Any increase in right whale sightings off the coast of the Carolinas could mean that more surveys will be conducted there in coming years which will hopefully lead to even more protections in those areas.