(Halifax) Three critically endangered North Atlantic right whales were spotted entangled in fishing gear off the US east coast this month.
Published yesterday at 6:23 p.m.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said two of the three whales, two young males, are expected to die.
Entanglements and ship strikes in U.S. and Canadian waters are the leading causes of mortality for North Atlantic right whales, and scientists say there are fewer than 400 of them.
They move into Atlantic Canadian waters primarily to feed, and they previously migrated more toward the Bay of Fundy to eat plankton, but they have gradually migrated toward the Gulf of St. Lawrence as sea temperatures rise. ocean are changing.
Aerial surveillance teams spotted a juvenile male whale Dec. 16 about 60 miles off the coast of North Carolina with several lines wrapped around its head and mouth.
On December 9, an aerial surveillance team spotted two entangled whales – an adult female and a juvenile male – within a few miles of each other, about 50 miles southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
The agency says that, weather conditions permitting, its entanglement response teams will monitor the whales and determine whether they can attempt to free the animals.
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