Minke whale death toll climbing, group says

HALIFAX• An animal protection group says the death toll appears to be rising for a small whale species off the East Coast, raising concerns that the animals are falling victim to the same threats facing endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Tonya Wimmer of the Marine Animal Response Society said Monday that since early February about 14 minke whales have been found dead at sea or on beaches in the Maritimes, largely around northern New Brunswick. Others were found in the Bay of Fundy, off Cape Breton and off the eastern tip of P.E.I.

That’s up from the average rate of about 10 deaths a year for minkes, which are not considered at risk or threatened.

“With a species that is quite common, the thought is that they can sustain more deaths, but I think when we start to see numbers that appear to be a little bit higher than normal and clumped in a particular area, it does start to raise bit of a concern,” she said.

“We really need to pay good attention to this because there does seem to be more animal (deaths)."

Wimmer said many of the carcasses found off New Brunswick were badly decomposed or were floating offshore, which means the cause of death couldn’t be determined.

However, Wimmer confirmed that several of the other animals appear to have been killed by ship strikes or entanglements in fishing gear — the main causes of death for right whales.

Wimmer said it’s possible more deaths are being reported because there is increased surveillance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the wake of about 18 North Atlantic right whale deaths last year in Canadian and U.S. waters.

Some of the minke carcasses were found in the same area where dead right whales were discovered floating last year.

Wimmer said little is known about the common minkes, the smallest of the baleen whales. However, the U.s.-based National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration has reported an unusual mortality event with about 33 minke deaths since 2017 and is monitoring the species more closely.

The sleek animals are brownish in colour, have striking white markings on their flippers and can reach about 10 metres in length. It’s thought that there are about 3,000 to 4,000 minkes in the wild.

Last week, a dead minke washed up on Inkerman Beach in northern New Brunswick, but Wimmer says it was badly decomposed and in such an inaccessible spot that they may not be able to get a sample to help determine the cause of death.

The federal government introduced strict new measures that came into force this year to reduce the threat of fishing gear entanglements and ship strikes in the wake of the North Atlantic right whale deaths.