North Atlantic Right Whale

The New England Aquarium identified the pair as 16-year-old “Koala” and 14-year-old “Curlew,” both females. And this, too, is unusual: two right whales rarely remain together for more than a few days, unless it's a mother with her calf.

The state Division of Marine Fisheries and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have teamed up to launch an innovative passive acoustic monitoring network. The aim is to improve detection of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales in Massachusetts waters.

Survey experts with the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown say they’ve been thrilled to identify more 162 individual right whales in recent weeks — that’s out of a total of about 370.

Just hours after his inauguration on Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting new federal leases for offshore wind projects. He cited, as one reason, the impact offshore wind may have on marine life. “If you’re into whales,” Trump said, “you don’t want windmills.” Whale experts say the facts show otherwise.

A proposed slow zone for ferries, ships and large boats along the U.S. East Coast has been scrapped, after months of heated criticism from Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and other coastal communities. Whale conservationists lamented the move as a major loss, saying the federal proposal was a “much needed” effort to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from extinction.

The endangered right whales' median age at death is about 22. Southern right whales, a closely related species, generally live into their seventies. The difference? Southern whales aren’t facing entanglements in fishing gear and boat collisions at the same rate.

A 3-year-old male, seen southeast of Nantucket with lines wrapped across his head and back, is unlikely to survive. An adult female with ropes hanging from her mouth was sighted in the same area. Altogether, seven entangled right whales have been spotted along the East Coast.

Scientists said they couldn’t pinpoint what caused the growth in population size, but said some ocean management measures — like slow zones for boats and changes to entangling fishing gear — may have had a positive impact.

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

Michael Moore has spent decades studying critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. But the veterinarian, author, and scientist emeritus from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution had never seen an offshore wind farm up close — until last week.