Michael Dwyer
/ Associated Press
A male North Atlantic right whale with a history of entanglements is "badly injured" off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, after being entangled in rope of “unknown origin.”
It’s the first time a critically endangered right whale has been reported entangled in Canadian waters since 2019.
“It was thrashing quite a lot,” said Amy Knowlton, a researcher with the New England Aquarium who maintains a catalog of right whales. A member of her team helped to identify the whale. “There was blood on the tail region and there was rope around the head, maybe around one of the flippers and also around the tail stock. So it was pretty wrapped up in gear and definitely trying to shed that gear.”