Kelsey Lamp
Director, Protect Our Oceans Campaign, Environment America
Statement: Second young right whale dead in a month
Media Contacts
Jennette Gayer
State Director, Environment Georgia
ATLANTA — Just weeks after a three-year-old female North Atlantic right whale washed ashore in Martha’s Vineyard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed that a second young female right whale has been found dead off the coast of Savannah, Georgia.
While the official cause of death is yet to be released, NOAA confirmed the whale’s identity as the daughter of female right whale Pilgrim, born in December 2022.
This is yet another upsetting blow for the critically endangered right whale species, which frequently die of human-related causes. Of the whale’s remaining members, only about 70 are females of reproductive age. The loss of juvenile female whales further decreases the chances that the population of right whales can recover from the brink of extinction. Today, scientists estimate that fewer than 360 right whales are left, and that the species can afford to lose less than one whale per year to human causes.
Kelsey Lamp, Protect our Oceans Campaign Director with Environment America, released the following statement:
“I’m really tired of writing ‘more bad news for right whales.’ While we don’t yet know what caused this one-year-old whale’s death, we do know this: her death would have been a tragedy in a world where right whales were thriving. But with right whales on the brink, it’s devastating. We must take action before we lose these whales forever.”
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