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The 3-year-old female whale was found trapped in a rope on Sunday, Jan. 28, near Joseph Sylvia State Beach in Edgartown, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“State law enforcement officials collected some of the rope that was entangled around, and embedded in, the whale’s tail,” NOAA Fisheries said in a statement. “They turned it over to NOAA’s Office Law Enforcement.”
Gear experts will examine the rope, and a necropsy (an animal autopsy) will determine the cause of death.
The whale was last seen in June 2023 in “poor health” with a “rope deeply embedded in her tail,” the New England Aquarium said.
Scientists at the aquarium first saw the animal entangled in fishing in August 2022 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, and they tried multiple times to set her free in January and February 2023 near Cape Cod.
She was seen again in June 2023 in the same gulf “with her overall body condition declining as the rope constricted around her tail had become more deeply embedded.”
The 3-year-old is the eighth whale in her family to experience entanglements, the aquarium said.
North Atlantic right whales are nearing extinction with around 360 remaining, including less than 70 reproductively active females, NOAA noted.
Anyone who sees injured or stranded whales — dead or alive — should keep a 150-foot distance, and call the Greater Atlantic Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline can be reached at (866) 755-6622 and the Southeast Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline at (877) WHALE-HELP (877-942-5343).
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