Latest discovered dead right whales had history of entanglements
There have been 4 reported deaths in June
The two North Atlantic right whales found floating dead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Tuesday have been identified as an 11-year-old female and a male more than 30 years old.
The female, #3815, was on the cusp of sexual maturity and had yet to give birth, according to the New England Aquarium.
"The loss of sexually mature females is biologically a major loss to this species that has seen a precipitous population decline over the past several years," the aquarium said in a release issue Wednesday.
Fewer than 100 reproductively active females remain after the June 19 discovery of a dead 38-year-old female. Overall, around 400 North Atlantic right whales are left.
The aquarium said #3815 was born in 2008 and sighted every year since, usually in Cape Cod Bay off the Massachusetts coast. She was first spotted in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2017 and returned the following the two years.
She had been entangled in fishing gear on four separate occasions.
"The first three were minor, but in 2017 her encounter was more serious and led to substantial scarring around her peduncle," the release stated.
The deceased male, believed to be at least 33 years old, was named Comet for a long scar on his right side. He was an "old favourite" of researchers, and he fathered a daughter in 1990. He became a grandfather in 2013.
The aquarium said visible scarring indicates it's likely he had been involved in three minor entanglements.
Comet was also first spotted in the gulf in 2017 and returned in the following two years.
The aquarium said the gulf is a "major" new habitat for the whale after climate change disrupted the main feeding waters in the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine.
"Rapidly warming deep water there does not provide the preferred environmental conditions for the growth of copepods, the preferred food of right whales," it said. "Right whales have since dispersed in search of new food sources.
The deaths raise the total number of confirmed fatalities in Canadian waters this year to four. The first reported death was a nine-year-old male on June 4.
No right whales were recorded dying in Canadian waters last year, but 12 were found dead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2017.