October 18, 2018 — According to the federal government, the North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species, with only an estimated 450 remaining. As of this year, there are at least three fewer.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel on Sunday reported a sighting of a whale carcass floating about 100 miles east of Nantucket. NOAA reviewed photos provided by experts and determined it was a North Atlantic right whale.
“The carcass is severely decomposed, but photographs show multiple wounds indicative of human interaction,” according to NOAA. “The initial examination revealed marks consistent with entanglement. However, at this stage it is too early to speculate on the cause of the death.”
With the help of the U.S. Coast Guard, the whale carcass was found early Monday afternoon.
The crew of NOAA’s fisheries research ship Henry B. Bigelow took additional photos and samples that will be used to more precisely identify and learn more about the whale, according to NOAA.
Northern right whales have been listed as endangered since 1970. About 4 percent of the animal’s population died in 2017. No new calves were spotted this year.
According to NOAA, commercial whalers by the 1890s had “hunted right whales in the Atlantic to the brink of extinction.”