A new report from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium this week estimated that the right whale population rose to about 372 whales at the beginning of 2023, up from a previous estimate of 356 whales.
After wrapping up its necropsy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday that the female calf found in Edgartown earlier this year died due to chronic entanglement.
Steamship general manager Robert Davis went to Washington, D.C. to talk to lawmakers about the proposed right whale protective measures as conservation groups call for a hard implementation deadline.
The rope embedded in the tail of a dead young right whale that washed up on the Vineyard last month is consistent with buoy lines used by trap fishermen in Maine.
Tribal leadership maintains it has aboriginal rights to any dead whales that beach along the shores of Noepe — the Wampanoag name for Martha’s Vineyard. Retaining that right has remained a priority for members, who have traditionally made use of whale meat, fat, bones and baleen.
The 3-year-old female whale was seen entangled in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in August 2022, and attempts to free it off Cape Cod last year were unsuccessful, according to the New England Aquarium.
Scientists have yet to determine the cause of death as of Monday afternoon, but the dead calf represents another blow to the critically endangered whale species, which has dwindled to fewer than 360 individuals in recent years.
After seven years on the decline, the global population of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale may be starting to level off, providing a glimpse of hope for the species’ survival.
