COURTESY OF NOAA FISHERIES
Endangered North Atlantic right whales
PROVINCETOWN – A right whale rescued in Cape Cod Bay a decade ago was recently spotted with a newborn calf in the waters off of North Carolina and Florida, a good sign for the critically-endangered marine animal.
The Center for Coastal Studies said that the calf was one of the first two right whales of the 2021 season, and the mother is right whale #4040, Chiminea.
Chiminea was found entangled in Cape Cod Bay by the Center’s aerial survey team in April 2011, in the waters west of Truro.
The Marine Animal Entanglement Response team cut the entangled then-juvenile whale free of a long line caught in the mouth, after which she swam away free.
Ten years later, the mother and her newborn calf are two of about 400 North Atlantic right whales; a species with fewer than 100 breeding females left, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.
CCS said that it remains ready to respond at a moment’s notice to protect the health and well-being of whales and other marine life.
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