A young north Atlantic right whale found dead about 20 miles off Tybee showed evidence of blunt force trauma consistent with a vessel strike before it died, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries service reported Friday.
Working on the beach at Tybee Island Thursday, scientists completed a necropsy of a yearling female whale. They found evidence of fractures of the skull.
The juvenile, born to a whale named Pilgrim in December 2022, was last seen alive on Feb. 3, 2023, swimming without any apparent injury or entanglement south of Cape Canaveral, Fla. The crew of a cargo ship alerted authorities to its carcass offshore Tuesday.
NOAA Fisheries indicated additional histological and diagnostic testing of samples are pending. The case is an active NOAA Office of Law Enforcement investigation.
About 360 North Atlantic right whales survive today, making them critically endangered. The population is declining faster than birth rates can keep in large part because of vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglements throughout their habitat along the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada. Right whales feed in the northern part of their range year round, but in the winter pregnant females migrate to the warmer waters of the Southeast to give birth. Other whales, including juveniles like Pilgrim’s daughter, sometimes tag along.
NOAA has proposed beefing up the protection of right whales by expanding existing ship speed rules. But the proposed regulations stalled after meeting with resistance from the recreational fishing industry, harbor pilots and some lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-St. Simons).
Earlier this week, conservation groups asked a federal court to lift a pause on a 2021 lawsuit seeking a deadline for final action on the proposed rule. The groups involved in the request are Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation and Defenders of Wildlife.
“It’s profoundly disturbing to see yet another North Atlantic right whale hit and killed by a vessel while we’re waiting for long-overdue federal protections. Every death brings these beleaguered whales one big step closer to extinction, especially when we lose young females,” said Catherine Kilduff, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We need immediate science-based action that slows vessels down to keep North Atlantic right whales in the ocean.”
The waters off Georgia form the heart of the right whale calving area. Seventeen calves have been identified this calving season, which runs from November through March. The state’s importance to right whales helped to designate them as Georgia’s official state marine mammal.
With so few remaining, researchers have catalogued each right whale, identifying them by the distinct patterns formed by harmless white sea lice that colonize rough patches of skin on their heads. Each whale is given a four digit identification number. Some are also identified by a nickname that makes them easier to identify quickly.
Pilgrim’s yearling is the fifth right whale reported dead or critically injured in 2024. Another juvenile female, #5120, was found dead in Martha’s Vineyard earlier this month entangled in fishing gear from the Maine lobster fishery. Both Half Note and #3780 have been seen without their newborns who are missing and presumed dead.
The yearling is the second right whale found in the Southeast with vessel strike injuries this year. In January, the six-week-old calf of a whale named Juno was seen off South Carolina with life-threatening lacerations on its head a lip. Researchers have determined the cuts were made by the propeller of a vessel at least 35-feet-long. The calf has been seen alive at least twice since then, once near Amelia Island and once off Sapelo. Its injuries are still considered severe.
Working to examine the whale carcass were local, state and university partners including the University of North Carolina, Wilmington; Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; Blue World Research Institute; Georgia Department of Natural Resources; Clearwater Marine Aquarium; University of Florida; Savannah State University; Low Country Marine Mammal Stranding Network; Tybee Island Public Works, Police Department, Fire and Rescue, and Marine Science Center; Sea Tow; United States Coast Guard; and NOAA Office of Law Enforcement.
