Scientist spots entangled young whale: "My heart sank instantly"

BOSTON - Scientists are trying to free a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale from a life-threatening entanglement.

New England Aquarium researchers were on board a boat in Canadian waters Saturday in the Gulf of St. Lawrence when they spotted the year-and-a-half-old North Atlantic right whale off New Brunswick with rope across her mouth, back and right flipper.

"As she dove it became very clear that there was rope over her back," researcher Kate McPherson said in a statement. "My heart sank instantly as I alerted the rest of the boat that we had an entangled whale; this is the last thing any of us wants to see when we are out surveying."

The whale had previously been spotted off the southeast coast of the United States in February with no sign of entanglement. It's not clear where the entanglement happened.

Disentanglement efforts underway

The team followed the whale from a safe distance for an hour and attached a tracking buoy to a rope that was trailing behind the whale. The aquarium said "disentanglement efforts are underway and will continue as weather permits."

The young whale is the seventh known calf of "War," a female first seen in 1988. War and her offspring have now experienced at least nine entanglements, the aquarium said.

Whale entanglements a "chronic problem" facing species

Entanglement and vessel strikes are two of the biggest threats to right whales, and there are believed to be fewer than 360 of the whales left.

Aquarium researchers are pushing for modifications to fishing gear to prevent deadly entanglements, which scientist Amy Knowlton said "continues to be a chronic problem facing this species."

Last month, a female right whale named Shelagh suffered her fifth entanglement , also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. There has not been an update on her condition since May, but officials said crews would try to disentangle her if she was spotted again.

And in January, a young right whale washed up dead on a Martha's Vineyard beach and scientists later determined it became caught in fishing gear from Maine.