A 1-year-old North Atlantic right whale that was spotted several times in Cape Cod Bay last spring has died, while sharks have been scavenging the whale carcass.
New England Aquarium scientists identified the right whale found dead off Georgia earlier this week as the only calf of “Pilgrim,” a well-known right whale that has spent a lot of time in Massachusetts waters.
The female yearling’s death is the critically endangered species’ second lost female in the last month. The species has an estimated population of less than 360 individuals, and there are only 70 reproductively active females remaining.
“Pilgrim” and her calf were spotted several times in Cape Cod Bay last spring.
“In just over a two-week period, the North Atlantic right whale population has lost two young females,” said Heather Pettis, a research scientist in the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.
“Their deaths, while heartbreaking in and of themselves, also represent the potential loss of dozens of new whales in the population,” Pettis added. “As this species struggles to recover, these deaths are significant.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was alerted about the whale carcass off Savannah, Georgia on Tuesday.
The right whale was then identified after an aerial survey team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute found the carcass about 20 miles off Tybee Island, Georgia on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, sharks have been spotted heavily scavenging the whale carcass — which could make it more difficult to tow the whale ashore and conduct a necropsy.
The dead yearling comes from a large family of right whales, numbering 30 relatives. Her mother Pilgrim was first seen with her own mother, “Wart,” near the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Cape Cod Bay in 2013.
Researchers worried that a calf born in the cold Northeast winter would struggle to survive, but Pilgrim defied the odds and became a first-time mother at the age of 10.
Collectively, this family of right whales has experienced at least 77 injuries from fishing gear entanglements and vessel strikes. In 2021, one of the yearling’s cousins, a 1-month-old calf, was hit and killed by a sport fishing vessel off Florida.
“This family’s story highlights the depth of how much we know about these individuals and the magnitude of the threats that they are facing from human activities along our highly industrialized East Coast,” said Amy Knowlton, a senior scientist in the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center.
Two weeks ago, a 3-year-old female whale washed onto Martha’s Vineyard dead. According to NOAA, preliminary necropsy results of the whale showed chronic entanglement, with rope deeply embedded in the whale’s tail.
