Another death of critically endangered North Atlantic right whale renews calls for shipping regulations
Another death of a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale has renewed calls for regulation of shipping lane speed limits to protect the dwindling species and other marine life.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported a dead right whale floating about 20 miles off the coast of Tybee Island, Georgia, on Thursday. NOAA Fisheries was first alerted to the juvenile female whale, an offspring born to a tracked whale named Pilgrim, the previous Tuesday.
On Wednesday, a team from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources responded to the scene, where they discovered that the carcass of the whale, which was born in December 2022, was heavily scavenged by sharks, according to NOAA.
This is the second North Atlantic right whale to be found dead off the U.S. coast in less than a month. On Jan. 28, a dead female right whale washed up near Joseph Sylvia State Beach on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. A rope that was embedded in the whale's tailstock – the area between the dorsal fin and flukes – was determined to be from Maine, according to NOAA.
North Atlantic right whales are listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. The organization estimates the current population count at between 200 and 250 mature adults. Of those, only about 70 are believed to be "reproductively active females," according to NOAA.
"The news of any right whale death is harrowing, but the loss of yet another young female with reproductive potential is a devastating blow to the recovery of this imperiled species," Francine Kershaw, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told ABC News in a statement via email. "We are dangerously close to the point of no return. We need to stop these senseless deaths by immediately issuing strong regulations to protect right whales from being accidentally struck by boats and entangled in fishing gear."
The main threats the species faces are strikes by ships, entanglements in fishing nets, climate change, and ocean noise, according to NOAA.
Five North Atlantic right whales have been found dead since December, renewing calls from animal welfare activists to establish speed limits for shipping lanes and other safety regulations to protect marine life. In 2017, NOAA declared an unusual mortality event for right whales after the mammals unexpectedly began stranding themselves on beaches. Since then, at least 138 right whales have been documented as dead, seriously injured, or sublethally injured or ill, according to NOAA, which reports that the death toll since 2017 currently stands at 28.
Oceana, a nonprofit ocean conservation organization, blamed "gross negligence" by the federal government for the latest right whale death.
"Our East Coast shores have become the graveyard for a critically endangered species dying from human causes and the deaths and injuries keep adding up," Gib Brogan, Oceana U.S. campaign director, said in a statement.
On Tuesday, a coalition of environmental groups, including Defenders of Wildlife, filed a federal lawsuit to finalize shipping speed rules proposed in 2022 that would require mariners off the East Coast to slow down in order to reduce the risk of injury or death to the endangered whales. The lawsuit is calling for President Joe Biden and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to implement and properly enforce the proposed vessel speed rule.
NOAA anticipated taking action on the proposed rule in 2023, but the agency is still working on finalizing the rules, spokesperson Andrea Gomez told The Associated Press.
Gomez did not comment on this week's lawsuit filing.
