April 1, 2019 — A new report has been released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution which details the major threats facing critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.
The population for the species is estimated to be just over 400 and has suffered in recent years from high mortality rates with very few births.
The report indicates the whales are most threatened by fishing gear entanglements, vessel strikes and noise pollution.
WHOI Marine Biologist Michael Moore, who was a co-author of the report, says there has been a dramatic shift in the number of deaths caused by entanglements over the last decade.
Before 2010, 45 percent of right whale deaths were due to vessel strikes with 35 percent attributed to entanglements. Since 2010, entanglements have resulted in about 85 percent of right whale deaths.
“The entanglement rate has gone up and become more severe,” Moore said. “It used to be the animals would get entangled and scarred up and then be able to wiggle out of it or get disentangled, but now the entanglement mortality rate has also increased.”
Whale researchers are also concerned with the non-lethal effects of getting caught in fishing gear.
“Eighty-plus percent of the species show entanglement scars and 25 percent of them get new scars every year,” Moore said. “So the majority don’t die but they do have sub-lethal impact and really it comes down to stress of being entangled and pulling the rope through the water and traps too if they are involved.”