Right whale population grows 4% but extinction remains a threat

BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine (AP) — One of the rarest species of whale in the world has increased slightly in population, encouraging conservationists to call on the federal government and the shipping and fishing industries to do more to bring the giant animals back from the brink of extinction.

The North Atlantic right whale, which can weigh up to 150,000 pounds (68,039 kilograms) and lives off the East Coast, plummeted in population in the 2010s. The critically endangered whales, which are stressed by global warming and vulnerable to ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear, fell to fewer than 360 individuals by the early 2020s.

A group of researchers that studies the whales said Tuesday that the population increased to an estimated 372 in 2023. That’s an increase of about 4% from 2020, and “heartening news” after the whale’s population fell by about 25% from 2010 to 2020, researchers said in a statement.

The researchers are members of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, which is a longstanding collaboration between scientists, conservationists, marine industry members and others. Heather Pettis, a research scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center and the chair of the consortium, said conservationists and government regulators “still have a great deal of work to do” to ensure the species keeps recovering.

https://apnews.com/article/endangered-right-whales-deaths-oceans-fishing-af43c6116421e7eff9ede5f9ca9a5066