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by CT Harry, Marine Campaigner, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) North Atlantic right whales once numbered tens of thousands in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean from the Labrador Sea to the coast of Florida. They were nearly driven extinct by whaling at the turn of the century and, tragically, once again, are […]
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A joint U.S.-Canada scientific paper published yesterday in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms looked at the causes of death for 70 North Atlantic right whales within the 16-year time period between 2003 and 2018 and found that of the 43 for which the researchers could determine a cause of death, nearly 90% were a direct result of entanglement in fishing lines and vessel collisions.
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The first North Atlantic Right Whale death in Canada this year was discovered drifting off Quebec’s Gaspé coast last Tuesday, and now the whale has been identified, but the cause of death remains undetermined until a necropsy can be performed on the animal. The whale was a nine-year-old known as Wolverine and he was familiar to researchers because of scars on his tale that were the result of a ship strike when he was younger, and because he had also survived three entanglements in fishing gear, according to CBC News.
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By Senator Edward J. Markey (D- MA) This week, a court ruling forced the Trump Administration to put its plan to massively expand offshore drilling for oil and gas on hold. The Trump Interior Department’s record is one of blatant disregard for the ocean’s living marine resources and the people and coastal economies that depend […]
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Due to spikes in whale mortality on both coasts, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is stepping up its efforts to tackle one of the leading causes of death — whale entanglement in fishing lines and nets.
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As part of their challenge to bar the government from drilling for oil and gas off the southeastern coast, a coalition of environmental groups asked a federal judge in South Carolina to force the government to suspend seismic airgun blast testing, which are used to deposits of oil and gas under the sea floor, until the case can be fully heard in court. They are challenging the government’s permits, which would allow for the drilling to harm and even possibly kill of a number of marine mammals, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, which is on the verge of extinction.
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