The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced recently that it had witnessed an entangled North Atlantic Right Whale swimming off the coast of the US state of Rhode Island.
NOAA identified the whale as adult male # 4143, first seen as a calf in 2011 and was gear-free swimming off Cape Cod, Massachusetts last month.
According to the NOAA notice:
“Right whale #4143 has rope coming out of both sides of its mouth. The rope also trails beyond the flukes, but the rope does not wrap around the whole body. Fortunately, the whale’s overall condition is good, and he was observed feeding during the aerial sighting. Given the long distance from shore, experts were unable to safely travel to the last known location of the whale during daylight to attempt a rescue. NOAA Fisheries and our partners will monitor this whale and attempt to respond to the entanglement, if possible, as weather and safety conditions allow.”
