Latest estimate shows 11 percent decline in North Atlantic right whale population - Press Herald

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A new population estimate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a roughly 11 percent decrease in the already endangered population of North Atlantic right whales.

The numbers, released Monday ahead of the annual meeting of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, reflect a change in population from 412 right whales alive in January 2018 to 366 right whales alive in January 2019. The numbers should be finalized in late 2021 or early 2022.

The North Atlantic right whale population has been in decline since 2011 but the numbers reported Monday represent a larger than anticipated loss, according to an email from NOAA Fisheries to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, a group established to help develop plans to mitigate the risk to marine mammals posed by fishing gear.

According to the email, the most recent numbers are lower than expected in part because an “unusual mortality event” in 2017 involving 42 whales over the last three years was found to be worse than previously thought. As a result, NOAA has revised the original January 2018 estimate down from 412 to 388 whales for that year.

Still, the agency said that given the low population numbers, including fewer than 94 breeding females remaining, it is essential to protect every North Atlantic right whale in order to avoid extinction. Deaths from vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear in both U.S. and Canadian waters remain the two known factors in the ongoing decline of the species.

Since the population peaked at 481 whales in 2011, there have been 103 births while roughly 218 whales have died presumably because of human activity – a rate of 24 whale deaths per year.

NOAA Fisheries is working with stakeholders and Canadian authorities to reduce vessel strikes and entanglement risks through a series of ongoing actions including analyzing the effectiveness of current vessel strike reduction measures, working with commercial fishermen to test ropeless fishing gear and reduce the amount of entangling lines in the water and continuing to respond to and investigate stranded, entangled and seriously injured right whales.

This story will be updated.

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