Another endangered right whale dies after collision with a ship off the East Coast

A deadly year for endangered North Atlantic right whales got even worse this week when another member of the species was killed in a collision with a ship, federal officials said Thursday.

The most recent right whale to die was found floating 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Virginia Beach, Virginia, last Saturday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a news release. The agency said the whale was a mother who gave birth to her sixth child this season.

Preliminary findings from the autopsy show the whale suffered catastrophic injuries, including spinal dislocation, consistent with blunt force trauma from a ship strike before death, the agency said Thursday.

The right whale population almost collapsed 25% from 2010 to 2020, Many environmental groups have said that the animals cannot withstand such a dramatic population loss.

“The survival of this species is threatened by human impacts,” NOAA said in its statement.

Whales were once numerous on the East Coast, but they were decimated during the commercial whaling era. They are slow to reproduce and the number of reproducing females in the population is dangerously low.

NOAA said the whale calf is not expected to survive without its mother and has not been seen for several weeks.

Environmental groups have called for stricter regulations on commercial fishing and shipping to try to save the whales. He cited studies that Whales are harmed by ocean warmingDue to which their food sources have shifted.

Scientists have said that changing food resources have driven whales away from protected areas of the ocean, making them more vulnerable. Whales migrate each year from Georgia and surrounding areas Florida To the pastures of New England and Canada.

This is an increasingly risky journey. Some environmentalists have filed a lawsuit to pressure the federal government into making a final decision. A new ship speed rule The groups say it is important to protect the whales.

“The choice is simple: either the ships slow down or the North Atlantic right whale becomes extinct,” said Sarah Sharp, an animal rescue veterinarian with the International Fund for Animal Welfare, who assisted with the autopsies. “How many more right whales will have to be sacrificed before anything changes?”

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