Listen to this article
Estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
A North Atlantic right whale named Division was found dead in U.S. waters this week, entangled in fishing gear. It’s the first entanglement death of 2026, according to the Canadian Whale Institute.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a news release Friday that an aerial survey team spotted a right whale carcass floating approximately 40 kilometres off the coast of Avon, N.C., on Jan. 27.
Scientists from the New England Aquarium confirmed it was Division, a four-year-old male.
According to the release, the whale had a fishing line wrapped around his head and mouth, cutting into his blowhole and upper jaw.
North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered, and scientists say there are fewer than 400 of them left. Entanglements and vessel strikes in U.S. and Canadian waters are the main causes of death, according to the NOAA.
Tonya Wimmer is the executive director for the Marine Animal Response Society. She says deaths of critically endangered animals are always significant.
“Every single animal actually counts [toward] even trying to get them to recover to a population where they could be considered not endangered,” said Wimmer.
Division was first spotted entangled more than a month earlier, on Dec. 3, and scientists noted that prolonged entanglement had harmed the whale’s overall health.
Wildlife teams were able to remove some of the fishing gear in December, but poor weather and Division’s distance from the shore prevented them from fully disentangling him. He was last seen alive on Jan. 21.
Division was the first detected North Atlantic right whale death since May 2024, the New England Aquarium said in a statement on Saturday.
Wimmer says it was difficult to see the visible impacts the entanglement had on Division.
“It was a pretty horrific thing to watch because he went from looking very much like a a right whale to a very thin, very emaciated, very sick-looking animal right before he passed,” said Wimmer.
“But it does also really spur people to say, ‘we have to stop this from happening.'”
Species ‘can still rebound,’ expert says
Due to Division’s location and dangerous weather conditions, it won’t be possible to retrieve the carcass or perform a necropsy, the NOAA said. But federal authorities will analyze the fishing gear removed from the whale.
Division had three previous documented entanglements over the years, according to the New England Aquarium.
North Atlantic right whales are known to travel to Atlantic Canadian waters to feed. Division was often seen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in New Brunswick, where the species gradually migrated as ocean temperatures warmed, the aquarium said.
Despite the death of another right whale, Wimmer says there are some glimmers of hope for the species — more than 21 calves have been born since this year’s calving season began in November. That already exceeds the 11 calves born in the 2025 season.
“It gives everyone huge hope that they are still strong, that they can still rebound. We just need to get the other things out of their way that we can control.”
MORE TOP STORIES
