The whale that died and then washed up on the shore of Martha’s Vineyard on Jan. 28 was a three year-old female identified in the New England Aquarium North Atlantic right whale catalog as #5170.
It is the first right whale known to have died after suffering injuries that officials say were inflicted by Maine commercial fishing gear.
The death is noteworthy because of arguments and lawsuits filed back and forth between Maine lobstermen and environmentalists over the impact that the fishery has on the species, which has an estimated population of around 360 individual animals. Of that estimate, fewer than 70 are reproductively active females, according to scientists.
The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration and its partner organizations reported multiple sightings of #5170 during its life. While scientists never gave it a name, it was first born in 2021 and is the only known calf of a whale named Squilla (#3720).
Its injuries were first noted in August 2022, when it was spotted in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada with multiple wraps of line around its tail and fluke, two small buoys at the flukes and an estimated 200 feet of trailing line, according to NOAA. It was considered a serious entanglement because the animal was just one-year-old at the time and the rope would only tighten as it grew.
The whale was again spotted in January 2023, entangled in Cape Cod Bay. A response team with the Center for Coastal Studies tried to disentangle it multiple times, without success because there was little trailing gear and it was difficult to use small boats owing to bad weather and the distance from shore, according to NOAA.
Before its death, whale #5170 was last seen in June 2023, feeding with other whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Its condition had worsened, with the wounds from its entanglement getting more severe.
Its carcass was discovered on Jan. 28, near Joseph Sylvia State Beach on Martha’s Vineyard. A Feb. 1 necropsy “confirmed a chronic entanglement, with rope deeply embedded in the tail, and thin body condition,” NOAA officials said. “The necropsy showed no evidence of blunt force trauma.”
The rope found on the whale had purple markings that are “consistent” with gear used in Maine’s lobster industry, NOAA said Wednesday. Officials said the full necropsy results are still pending and its investigation of the whale’s death remains open.
Entanglements in fishing gear and ship strikes are the two main ways that whales die unnatural deaths, according to whale researchers. Climate change also is affecting the whales, causing them to pursue prey in areas with fewer protections from vessel strikes and entanglements, according to federal officials.
The species has been experiencing what federal officials call an “unusual mortality event” since 2017, when a spike in injuries and deaths aggravated concerns that North Atlantic right whales may go extinct. That year, 17 right whales died, including 12 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
