“Cap’n” Seth Wakeman Jr.
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.
Herman Melville didn’t mince words when it came to the sperm whale. With emphasis, he explained “I tell you, the sperm whale will stand no nonsense.” And it didn’t — since we know it as the creature that sank the whaleship Essex in the real-life tragedy that was the inspiration for Moby Dick.
In waters about 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, a whale not seen in the region for more than two centuries was spotted from the skies last week by scientists with the New England Aquarium.
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.
