Fishing nets and lack of food blamed for
pushing number of the world’s most endangered marine animal to just 450
Associated Press
Monday 11 December 2017 00.56 GMT
Officials with the US federal government say
it is time to consider the possibility that endangered right whales could
become extinct unless new steps are taken to protect them.
North Atlantic right whales are among the
rarest marine mammals in the world, and they have endured a deadly year. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said there are only about
450 of the whales left and 17 of them have died so far in 2017.
The situation is so dire that American and
Canadian regulators need to consider the possibility that the population won’t
recover without action soon, said John Bullard, the Northeast Regional
Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. The high year of mortality is coinciding with
a year of poor reproduction, and there are only about 100 breeding female North
Atlantic right whales left.
“You do have to use the extinction word,
because that’s where the trend lines say they are,” Bullard said. “That’s
something we can’t let happen.”
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