A review of the status of an endangered whale species has found the animal’s population is in worse shape than previously thought, federal ocean regulators warned Monday.
The North Atlantic right whale numbers fewer than 350 individuals and its population has been declining for several years. In 2017, the US federal government declared the whale’s decline an “unusual mortality event”, meaning an unexpected and significant death.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a US agency, has released new data that 114 whales have been documented as dead, seriously injured or sublethally injured or sick since the start of the mortality event. This is an increase of 16 whales from the previous estimate released earlier this year.
The agency recently completed a review of the whales using photographs from researchers and surveys to create the new estimate, explained Andrea Gomez, a spokeswoman for NOAA.
“Additional cases will continue to be investigated and animals will be added as appropriate as new information becomes available,” Ms.me Gomez.
36 of the 114 whales included in the estimate died, according to NOAA documents. The agency says only a third of right whale deaths are documented, so the total number of dead or injured animals could be much higher.
Right whales are found off the Atlantic coast of the United States and in Atlantic Canada. They are vulnerable to collisions with large vessels and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. The federal government has worked to develop stricter rules to protect whales from both of these threats.
Commercial fishing and shipping interests have both pledged to fight tougher protections. Last month, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the fishermen, who had filed a lawsuit on the grounds that the proposed new restrictions risked bankrupting them.
The new data illustrates the seriousness of the whales’ situation, said Sarah Sharp, an animal rescue veterinarian at the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The number of injured animals is particularly important because injured whales are less likely to reproduce.
“If animals expend energy healing an injury, they won’t necessarily have those energy reserves for other things,” Ms.me Sharp. I think that gives a much more accurate picture of the threats these whales face. »
The whales give birth off Florida and Georgia and feed off New England and Canada. They have been protected by the Endangered Species Act for decades, and federal authorities decided in December that they must retain that protection.