Entanglement in fishing gear and vessel strikes are among the leading causes of North Atlantic right whale mortality and over the past several years, there have been comprehensive measures in place to help protect this species from such impacts.
Canada’s government recently announced enhanced measures to further reduce risks to these iconic marine mammals during the 2020 season from April to November when the whales are sighted in Canadian waters.
For centuries they were lucrative prey for whalers and by the early 1890s, commercial whalers had hunted right whales in the Atlantic to near extinction. The number of North Atlantic right whales, one of the world’s most endangered large whale species, has declined from about 500 in 2010 to about 400, with fewer than 100 breeding females left – once gone, the species will be extinct forever!
The 2020 measures can be read here
