(CN) — A struggling species of whale found off the Atlantic Coast of the U.S. has been facing elevated mortality levels in recent years, according to research published by federal ocean regulators.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released new data on the North Atlantic right whale, one of the world’s most endangered large world species, saying “human interaction, specifically from entanglements or vessel strikes” pose a high threat to the species' recovery. There are estimated to be less than 350 left.
The whale was widely hunted in the 19th century by whalers for whale oil found in blubber and baleen, a food-filtering system found inside their mouths and used to make corsets and hoop skirts. Today, the species continues to be plagued by changing ocean temperatures that alter its feeding ground, being struck by ships and being tangled up in fishing rope, where tight cords can cause drowning, starvation or infection.
Recording 114 instances of the whale’s mortality, serious injury, and morbidity (or injuries slightly less than lethal or that continue to cause sickness), the research published by the administration uses numbers gathered between 2017 and 2023 — the former being the year the federal government earmarked the whale’s decline as an "unusual mortality event," concerned about a sharp decline happening in the population.
Thirty-six of the whales died. Thirty-three had serious injuries. And 45 had sublethal injuries.
“Research demonstrates that only about 1/3 of right whale deaths are documented,” the administration noted in its report, which found the preliminary cause of mortality, serious injury and morbidity came from entanglements and vessel strikes.
“Given that the latest preliminary estimate suggests there are fewer than 350 North Atlantic right whales remaining, the many individual whales involved in the unusual mortality event are a significant setback to the recovery of this endangered species,” the report continued.
The report estimates that 12 whale calves were born in 2023, up from 2018 when no births occurred. In 2009, an estimated 39 calves were born.
The federal government has created laws to protect whales from commercial fishing and shipping vessels in recent years, however both industries have fought the protections.
The Maine Lobstermen’s Association tallied a victory this summer in a suit against the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service at the D.C. Circuit over restrictions placed on fishing gear intended to help the whales, with the appellate court reversing a lower court ruling.
The whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. They give birth off the coasts of Florida and Georgia. swim up the East Coast to feed in New England and Canadian waters.
Researchers have also found that right whales in the North Atlantic are also significantly shorter today than those born as recently as 40 years ago, according to a study published in 2021 in the journal Current Biology that voiced concerns shrinking sizes could create one more hurdle for survival.
The population of the right whale’s primary food source, small crustaceans called copepods, have also fluctuated over the past four decades, affecting reproductive rates and shifting traditional foraging grounds.
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