Fears rise to surface as 12 right whales die

Accidents threaten survival of species, now at about 500

PORTLAND, Maine — A high number of accidental deaths this year among the endangered North Atlantic right whale threaten the survival of the species, according to conservation groups and marine scientists.

The right whales, which summer off of New England and Canada, are among the most imperiled marine mammals on Earth. There are thought to be no more than 500 of the animals left, and there could be fewer than 460, as populations have only slightly rebounded from the whaling era, when they nearly became extinct.

Twelve of the whales are known to have died since April, meaning about 2 percent of the population has perished in just a few months, biologist Regina Asmutis-Silvia of the Plymouth, Mass.-based group Whale and Dolphin Conservation said this week. She and others who study the whales said this summer has been the worst season for right whale deaths since hunting them became illegal 80 years ago.

“This level of deaths in such a short time is unprecedented,” she said. “I just don’t know that right whales have time for people to figure it out. They need help now.”

Ten of the deaths were off the Atlantic coast of Canada while two were off Massachusetts. Four of the animals showed evidence of ship strikes while another appeared to have become entangled in fishing gear and at least one is still pending a necropsy, Asmutis-Silvia said. Some were too badly decomposed to determine the cause of death, she said.

Asmutis-Silvia and other conservationists said the deaths are evidence that regulations to prevent strikes and entanglements need to be strengthened in the United States and Canada.

The future of right whale rescue efforts has been a subject of debate since veteran whale rescuer Joe Howlett died July 10 after freeing a right whale off New Brunswick, Canada. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration responded by suspending efforts to free whales tangled in fishing lines, and later announced that rescue teams would resume most operations. Marine regulators in the U.S. and Canada said government is putting a focus on protecting right whales. Speed restrictions have reduced the number of right whale ship strike deaths, said Mike Asaro, marine mammal and sea turtle branch chief for NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Region.