The North Atlantic right whale, an endangered species, reportedly lost 2% of its total population in just two months.
There are only an estimated 400 of the massive creatures left on earth, and the Washington Post reports that, since the start of June, eight of those have been found dead.
Preliminary findings for three of the whales suggest that their deaths were caused by vessel strikes, although the majority are still pending necropsy results. Four of the whales killed were breeding females, which are critical to the species’ survival. Fewer than 100 breeding females are estimated to be alive.
Researchers found that of all right whale deaths over the last 15 years, 88% were caused by vessel strikes or entanglement.
“It’s a horrifying step toward extinction,” Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation USA said. “They’re a quiet, understated superhero, and we’re losing them.”
The large mammal’s greatest concern used to be whaling. They were hunted almost to the point of extinction for whale oil and meat until 1935, when the League of Nations banned harvests of the North Atlantic right whale. Their population began to rise after the ban but then began declining again about a decade ago.
Although the exact cause of the sudden decline is not known, scientists speculate that warming waters from climate change are causing their food habitats to move north, and with those, the whales. The areas they are moving to have less protections and the whales may encounter more ship strikes and fishing lines.
In 2017, 17 of the whales died in North America. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration described the occurrence as an “unusual mortality event.” Those deaths were also caused by vessel strikes or fishing line entanglements. Of the 17, 12 of those deaths were in Canada.
After that year, the Canadian government tightened restrictions on speed and fishing, which seemed to work as no right whales were found dead in Canada in 2018. As a result, the government once again loosened restrictions. But after this year’s deaths, Canadian officials have tightened the rules once more, expanding the area of speed limitations and increasing surveillance.
