Endangered Right Whale Calf Found Dead Off The Coast Of Georgia After Being Struck By A Vessel

Heartbreaking news as a North Atlantic right whale calf was found dead on Sunday 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.

Although it was a smaller boat that killed the whale calf, Oceana’s previous analysis found that nearly 80% of ships subject to mandatory speed limits (65 feet and over) violated these limits during the period that Juno’s calf was struck by a boat and left with critical injuries. Oceana said an updated vessel speed rule covering smaller boats and increased enforcement are both necessary to save North Atlantic right whales. 

“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.”

As previously reported by WAN, 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 an estimated 360 individuals remaining in the wild today. Scientists will perform a necropsy and evaluate the vessel strike wounds that led to the premature end of the calf’s 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.

“Just weeks ago, we were on Tybee Island mourning the loss of a juvenile North Atlantic right whale that was killed by a boat strike, and here we are again with another preventable tragedy on Georgia’s shores. When will this heartbreaking cycle of death end?” said Hermina Glass-Hill, Oceana’s senior field representative in Georgia.

“Juno’s newborn calf offered hope for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales to recover, and because of the human-caused threats they face, that chance is gone. In the first few weeks of its short life, this calf’s face was sliced open by a boat propeller, causing painful and prolonged suffering, which sadly resulted in its death,” continued Glass-Hill. “Our government already knows what to do to protect these critically endangered whales, so why are they sitting on it? Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and President Biden need to immediately release the updated vessel speed rule their own agency proposed nearly two years ago. Until they do, this right whale’s death, and the future ones to come, are on their watch.”

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.

Please tell your federal officials to take immediate action to protect North Atlantic right whales from extinction by signing Oceana’s petition, HERE!

Please report any sightings of right whales that are injured or entangled to NOAA. Please take photos or videos from the legally required 500-yard distance and note the GPS coordinates to share with biologists.