January 30, 2018 — The death of a right whale, spotted floating off the Virginia Beach coast last week, has drawn wide attention to a species considered one of the most imperiled of marine mammals.
The 10-year-old juvenile female is believed to have become entangled in fishing gear, and its death was the first of 2018 among North Atlantic right whales. The 39-foot whale was buried at Sandbridge’s Little Island Park beach after a necropsy Sunday involving experts from six institutions from Massachusetts to Florida.
Only about 450 of the whales are believed to exist after at least 17 deaths last year, and so far this winter no newborns have been spotted in the calving grounds off Florida and Georgia.
That has added to concern that the species’ demise might be accelerating. Some scientists have predicted that North Atlantic right whales could become extinct this century.
Earlier this month, the Center for Biological Diversity and two animal welfare groups sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its parent agency, claiming that they’re not enforcing laws and regulations meant to protect the whales from entanglement in lines for lobster traps and other fishing gear.
Jennifer Goebel, a spokeswoman for NOAA Fisheries, said the whale found dead near the North Carolina border was wrapped in line in a way that suggested it had been alive when it encountered the gear. She said officials will try to identify the line and who had deployed it.
Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot