PORTLAND PRESS HERALD – Today is the inaugural Right Whale Day, an effort by the state of Massachusetts to raise awareness of the plight of the North Atlantic right whale. It could not have come at a more critical time. More than a third of the species has been lost since 2010; of the roughly 340 remaining whales, fewer than 70 are females who are able to reproduce.
A number of human-caused threats, such as vessel strikes and fishing gear that entangles
right whales, are pushing the species closer to the extinction tipping point.
Sadly, right whales are also entangled in and exploited by political and economic interests –
potentially as lethal as the one million fishing lines they must swim through as they migrate
along the Eastern Seaboard and into Canadian waters.