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DARTMOUTH – On Sunday, March 25, a Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) surveillance
flight conducting a routine patrol spotted a dead North Atlantic right whale approximately
75 nautical miles off Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
Since the initial sighting, DFO has been working closely with the United States
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), as well as with US non-governmental organizations
(the New England Aquarium and the US Center for Coastal Studies), to determine the
exact location of the whale, to deploy a satellite tag to it, and to tow it ashore.
On Wednesday, March 28, with the aid of a surveillance aircraft deployed by the
NMFS, a Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) vessel – the Earl Grey – located the whale, and
documented, sampled, and tagged the carcass.
DFO officials are currently coordinating with US officials to investigate options
for bringing the whale ashore to perform a necropsy (autopsy on an animal) on the
mammal to investigate the cause of death.
With only approximately 350 individuals surviving, the right whale is one of
the world’s most endangered whales. Named the ‘right’ whale by whalers because it
is slow-moving and easy to catch, this whale had been hunted to near extinction
by the late 1800s. In 1935, the League of Nations banned hunting of right whales
in all oceans; the species was designated as ‘endangered’ by the Committee on the
Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) in 1980. The whale is listed as
endangered and is protected under the Species at Risk Act (SARA). The whale
is also protected under a number of other Acts, regulations and agreements. Despite
these protections, the North Atlantic right whale population is still struggling
to survive and has shown no signs of recovery.
DFO remains committed to the conservation and protection of the North Atlantic
right whale
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