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NOAA confirms cause of death for right whale that washed up on Martha's Vineyard

A tugboat prepares to pull 5120 off the Edgartown beach. IFAW researchers affixed a buoy to her flipper to keep track of the whale.
Eve Zuckoff
A tugboat prepares to pull 5120 off the Edgartown beach. IFAW researchers affixed a buoy to the whale's flipper to keep track of her in the water.

A North Atlantic right whale that washed up on Martha’s Vineyard last winter died of chronic entanglement wounds, a federally-led study concluded.

The young female — who researchers called 5120 — was initially caught in a firestorm of misinformation, with many claiming offshore wind contributed to her death.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported in February that the entangling rope came from a Maine lobster fishing gear, but confirmed that was the cause of death last week after using diagnostic testing and a microscope on the whale’s tissue.

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is still investigating the case.

Since 2022, 37 North Atlantic right whales have 37 died. Another 84 were deemed seriously injured or otherwise in poor health.

According to NOAA, the leading causes of death among right whales are entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with boats.

Eve Zuckoff covers the environment and human impacts of climate change for CAI.