Federal authorities said the second critically endangered North Atlantic right whale found dead in the past month showed injuries consistent with a collision with a ship.
The whales number less than 360 and have experienced decline in recent years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was notified of a dead right whale floating off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, on Tuesday.
The agency said late Friday that a necropsy of the animal found “evidence of blunt force trauma, including fractures of the skull,” and that those injuries “are consistent with a vessel strike prior to death.”
The announcement came just days after the NOAA released more details about a dead right whale off of Massachusetts that showed signs of entanglement in fishing gear, which is the other major threat the animals face.
The back-to-back deaths of the rare whales that both showed evidence of the species’ two major threats should motivate rule changes, numerous environmental groups said Saturday.
The groups have long pushed for stricter rules governing shipping and commercial fishing to help protect the whales.
“The North Atlantic right whale’s nursery is becoming a crime scene,” said Greg Reilly, Southeast marine campaigner for International Fund for Animal Welfare.
“Without enhanced protections, the North Atlantic right whale is doomed to extinction. Lawmakers need to get out of the way and let the administration finalize the amended vessel speed rule.”
The NOAA has proposed new vessel speed rules to try to protect whales, but they have yet to go into effect. Environmental groups have sued to try to force a deadline for the new rules.
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New fishing standards designed to protect the whales from entanglement in rope also are the subject of ongoing lawsuits involving environmentalists, fishing groups and the federal government.
The whale that died off of Massachusetts — the mammal was found in January — showed signs of entanglement in fishing lines that originated in the Maine lobster fishery, the NOAA said this week.
Entanglement of whales in rope in Maine is rare, said Kevin Kelley, a spokesperson for the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.
“Maine lobstermen have made significant changes to how they fish over the last 25 years to avoid entanglement and continue gear testing,” he said.
The right whales once were abundant off the East Coast, but they were decimated during the commercial whaling era and have been slow to recover.
The whales migrate from the waters off of Florida and Georgia to New England every year and face hazards such as collisions and entanglement along the way.
Some scientists have hypothesized that warming ocean waters have caused them to stray from protected zones during the journey.
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