Endangered Right Whale Calf Dead After Vessel Strike Injuries Take Their Toll

A North Atlantic right whale calf was found dead on March 3 after first being spotted in January with severe head, mouth and lip wounds stemming from a vessel strike. The calf, which washed ashore on Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia, marks the second death for the critically endangered species linked to a vessel strike in under a month. 

“We cannot save North Atlantic right whales from impending extinction if we do not take commonsense measures to protect them, especially calves and juveniles, from being run over and killed by boats,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. “Juno’s calf inspired so much hope as the first right whale calf of the season, but it spent most of its short life suffering from terrible propeller wounds as a direct result of the Biden administration’s failure to put such commonsense measures in place.”  

The calf was first spotted with distinctive injuries from a boat propeller in early January off the coast of South Carolina with its mother, “Juno.” The severity of the calf’s wounds signaled a likely mortality from impaired nursing, internal injuries and/or infection, according to NOAA Fisheries. 

The calf is now the 39th mortality since 2017 in a long list of blows to a species with only around 360 animals surviving today. Scientists will perform a necropsy and evaluate the vessel strike wounds that led to the premature end of its life. 

Vessel strikes are one of the leading threats to North Atlantic right whales. A 2008 speed rule requiring seasonal slowdowns is all that governs vessels across the United States’ Eastern Seaboard, where right whales spend much of their lives. That rule only sets speed limits for vessels 65 feet long or longer and protects limited areas where right whales showed activity in 2008.  

Last month, conservation groups renewed their efforts to hold the federal government accountable for failing to take timely action to protect right whales from vessel strikes, even after publishing a proposed expanded speed rule in August 2022. The vessel that struck and lethally wounded Juno’s calf is preliminarily estimated to be between 35 and 57 feet long, within the size range that the proposal says should be required to comply with seasonal slowdowns. 

“Tragically, Juno’s calf is not the first right whale to die from vessel strike injuries during this calving season. Unfortunately for the survival prospects of this species, it may not be the last, either. The Biden administration must act now or potentially face yet another brutal and completely unnecessary death,” Davenport said. 

In February, a dead one-year-old female right whale was found off the coast of Georgia with blunt force trauma injuries consistent with a strike from a vessel of unknown size.