A third endangered whale has been spotted entangled in fishing gear off the East Coast, marking an alarming end to the year for a species threatened with extinction.
The whales are North Atlantic right whales, which number fewer than 400 and are vulnerable to ship collisions and entanglement in gear. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said an aerial survey found an entangled whale about 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Dec. 16.
Another aerial survey found two entangled right whales off Nantucket, Massachusetts, just days earlier, NOAA officials said. Like one of the whales spotted off Nantucket, the whale spotted off North Carolina has suffered a serious injury and is likely to die as a result of the entanglement, NOAA said.
“Entanglement response teams are on alert, although current weather conditions in the area are not safe for mounting an immediate response. As future conditions permit, we will work with authorized responders and trained experts to monitor the whale,” NOAA said in a statement.
The North Carolina whale was spotted by an aerial survey team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute. The whale is a juvenile male born in 2021 and the animal has several lines crossing over and wrapping his head and mouth, NOAA said.
The North Carolina whale “has not yet been seen again,” said Melanie White, North Atlantic Right Whale Conservation Project Manager and research biologist at Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute.
The whales migrate along the East Coast because they give birth off Florida and Georgia and feed off New England and Canada. The journey has become increasingly perilous as waters have warmed because their food availability has changed and that has caused them to stray from protected areas of ocean, scientists have said.
Right whales’ population fell about 25% from 2010 to 2020. It has ticked up slightly since then, but the animals are in need of new protections to stave off extinction, conservationists have said.
The whales were once numerous off the East Coast but were devastated during the commercial whaling era. They have been a protected species for decades.