NMFS Northeast Region
News
Feds Ask for Information
about Right Whale's Death
Gloucester, Mass. -- NOAA Fisheries enforcement agents investigating the recent death of an endangered North Atlantic right whale are asking the public for any information about the circumstances of the whale's death. Anyone with information about a possible ship/whale collision is urged to call the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Enforcement Hotline at 1-800-853-1964.
The whale, nicknamed Staccato, was found dead in Cape Cod Bay April 20. She was last seen alive by a research team that observed her feeding in the bay April 15.
Preliminary results of a necropsy coordinated by NOAA Fisheries revealed broken bones that indicate the whale was struck by a ship, although the actual cause of death has not been determined.
"We are conducting an aggressive and vigorous investigation to find out what happened to this animal," said Andrew Cohen, deputy special agent-in-charge of the NOAA Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement in the Northeast Region. "The forensic evidence from the necropsy provides some information, but it would help greatly if we could hear from anyone who has any information about a ship possibly striking a whale between April 15 and April 20."
Cohen asked that anyone with information about the right whale's death call the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement's toll-free hotline, at 1-800-853-1964.
For Immediate
Release
May 6, 1999
Contact:
George Liles
PH: (508) 495-2378
FAX: 508 495-2258
NR99-07
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NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service * One Blackburn Drive * Gloucester, MA * 01930