Cape Cod Canal Closed After Endangered Whale and Calf Spotted

Right whale flukes. CCS image, NOAA permit #19315-1

BOURNE – The Cape Cod Canal was closed Sunday after a female North Atlantic right whale and her calf were spotted in the area, according to the Massachusetts Environmental Police.

The passageway was closed for five hours beginning around noon while the whales swam westbound.

The closure comes as the department reports that about 20 percent of the entire remaining North Atlantic right whale population is gathered in Cape Cod Bay—about 65 individual whales.

The whales head to the Cape’s waters annually to feed and raise their young, however they number fewer than 350.

Meanwhile, animal rescue experts with the Centers for Coastal Studies work to untangle a North Atlantic right whale that was spotted in Cape Cod Bay wrapped in several hundred feet of rope.