Endangered Mother Whale Gave Birth To Healthy Calf Despite Being Tangled Up In Ropes

These images show an endangered mother whale that has been tangled up in rope for months that has given birth to a new calf seen here swimming alongside her in this footage.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said that the footage showed the black whale – also known as right whales – known as ‘Snow Cone’ and that she was first spotted entangled in March 2021 in Cape Cod.

Back then already, “several disentanglement attempts were made” in which the rope trailing along behind Snow Cone was “successfully shortened”.

This footage now showing her with her calf was shot about 10 nautical miles off Cumberland Island, which is a barrier island on the state of Georgia’s south-eastern coast, in the USA, on Thursday 2nd December. It was shot by a MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife (Florida Wildlife Commission) aerial survey team.

It shows the baby whale appearing healthy and uninjured and swimming alongside its mother. It is the second black whale calf to have been spotted in the Atlantic Ocean so far this year.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said that the new calf was not entangled, “but has been observed swimming in, through and around the ropes. General opinion is that they are short enough that the calf likely won’t become entangled if everything remains as is.”

They added that they did not believe that the entanglement was “immediately life-threatening” but added that they would be monitoring the situation.

A whale that has been entangled in fishing gear for almost a year has been spotted off the coast of Cumberland Island in Georgia in the United States on the 2nd December 2021.
(@WildlifeResourcesDivisionGADNR/Newsflash)

Black whales (Eubalaena) fall into three distinct species, which are the North Atlantic right whale (E. glacialis), the North Pacific right whale (E. japonica) and the Southern right whale (E. australis). It is believed that Snow Cone is a North Atlantic right whale, given that it was spotted in the Atlantic Ocean.

Only the southern black whale is listed as a species of Least Concern on the IUCN’s Red List of Endangered Species. The other two are listed as critically endangered and endangered respectively.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said that “vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, like lobster and crab pots, are major threats to North Atlantic black whales, which are critically endangered. It’s estimated that fewer than 350 individuals remain, of which only about 70 are breeding females.”

The North Atlantic black whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species because the latest estimates suggesting that there are less than 350 of them remaining, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the US Department of commerce.


To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Joseph GolderSub-EditorJames King, Agency: Newsflash

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