Endangered right whales seeing catastrophic die-off in New England, Canadian waters
http://www.pressherald.com/2017/08/15/endangered-right-whales-in-crisis/
The North Atlantic right whale, the worlds second most endangered marine mammal, is having a catastrophic year in the waters off New England and Atlantic Canada, and scientists from Maine to Newfoundland are scrambling to figure out why.
At least a dozen right whales have been found dead this summer in the worst die-off researchers have recorded, a disastrous development for a species with a worldwide population of about 500.
Just imagine you put 500 dollars in the bank, and every time you put five in, the bank takes 15 out, says Moira Brown, a right whale researcher with the New England Aquarium who is based in Campobello Island, New Brunswick. This is a species that has not been doing well, even before we had all the dead whales this summer.
Canadian authorities have documented 12 dead whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence since June 7, though its possible that two carcasses that werent recovered after their initial sighting were counted twice. Two more of the rare, slow-moving whales were found dead off Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard, bringing this summers mortality to between 12 and 14 whales, more than 3 percent of their total population.