PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 13, 2024
Scientists estimate that before commercial whaling scaled up in the 18th and 19th centuries, there may have been as many as 10,000 North Atlantic right whales. Today, fewer than 360 individuals remain. Almost 90% of them have been entangled at least once. When whales become entangled, they use extra energy dragging the fishing gear. They may struggle to feed and slowly starve. Ropes wrapped around whales’ bodies can cause infections, chronic emaciation and damage to whales’ blubber, muscle, bone and baleen. Even when entanglement does not kill a whale, it can affect individuals’ ability to reproduce, which is critically important for a species with such low numbers. On Feb. 14, NOAA announced that a female North Atlantic right whale that died had rope deeply embedded in the whale’s tail likely from lobster fishing gear in Maine.