Endangered New Jersey: Right Whales in the Wrong Places

Entangled North Atlantic right whale spotted off New Jersey on October 11
Credit: Artie Raslich/Gotham Whale

At the end of last year, NOAA officials were on a search and rescue to find an entangled northern right whale that had been sighted in October near the approaches to New York Harbor.

The Gotham Whale group were on the American Princess New York-based whale watch vessel and spotted the whale 2.7 miles east of Sea Bright, N.J.

The group's photographs allowed the New England Aquarium, who keep track of the highly endangered right whale population, to identify the whale as #4680, a 4-year-old juvenile male.

Whale #4680 had been last been reported July 7 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and at that time was not entangled in fishing gear.

The whale is the calf of Dragon, a 19-year-old female whale, who was last seen severely entangled off Nantucket with a buoy lodged in her mouth, according to the Aquarium. Dragon is not expected to have survived her entanglement.

“To have two members of the same right whale family become severely entangled in the same year highlights the entanglement threat that right whales are facing every day,” Amy Knowlton, a senior scientist with the Aquarium’s right whale team, said in a press release.

North Atlantic right whales got their name for the wrong reason. They were considered to be the "right" whales to hunted by whaling ships because they floated when they were killed. The species has never recovered to pre-whaling numbers. These whales have been protected since 1935, when the international prohibition on whaling went into effect. North Atlantic right whales have been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since it was enacted in 1973, but have been experiencing a steady population decline for nearly a decade.

During the search for #4680, researchers spotted another North Atlantic right whale entangled in marine lines. It was spotted south of Nantucket on October 19, 2020, and identified as #3920 (AKA Cottontail), an 11-year-old male that was last spotted in the same general area in March of this year.

On February 28, 2021, officials confirmed that Cottontail #3920 was found dead 15 miles off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They collected biological samples, placed a tag on the whale to continue to track its location, and removed ropes entangling the animal.

NOAA Fisheries the public that these majestic animals are exceedingly rare and endangered, with only 400 North Atlantic right whales remaining.