Representatives from the Marine Animal Response Society take samples from a recently discovered 47ft North Atlantic right whale. Photo: Marine Animal Response Society
Six North Atlantic right whales have turned up dead in recent weeks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, and scientists and conservationists are desperately trying to understand why. It is estimated that only 500 right whales exist around the world, making this most recent string of deaths a major blow to the population.
Considered one of the rarest of all whale species, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimates only 300-350 right whales are currently present off the east coast of North America, which used to be home to tens of thousands. “Some 5,500 Right Whales (and “possibly twice that number”),” explains the IUCN, “were removed by whaling in the western North Atlantic between 1634–1951.”
The first whale was found on June 6, the second on June 19, a third on June 20, and three more were found between June 20-23. The die-off is being called “unprecedented.”
“For this species, even one animal is a hit to the population,” Tonya Wimmer, director of the Marine Animal Response Society, told National Geographic. “It seems very odd that they would die in this time frame and in the same area. It’s catastrophic.”
While the cause of death remains elusive, a 2013 study on declining beluga whale populations in the St. Lawrence Gulf suggests climate change, water contaminants, and a decline in prey population may all be to blame.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Marine Animal Response Society, the Canadian Coast Guard, and other organizations hope to bring one of the whale carcasses to shore to perform a necropsy in order to determine a cause of death. If scientists can infer a common cause of death, they can make policy recommendations in an effort to protect further deaths of the protected species.
“What we’re doing now is keeping them from the brink of extinction,” said Wimmer.
