Four Endangered Whales Found Dead in Six Weeks

Typography
Four endangered whales have been found dead in the past six weeks -- including two just this week, scientists said.

BOSTON — Four endangered whales have been found dead in the past six weeks -- including two just this week, scientists said.


A dead North Atlantic right whale was spotted off the coast of Georgia on Wednesday, a day after one was found off Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. Two were found in late December off Virginia and Nantucket.


Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium, said biologists hope to perform autopsies on the whales found this week to determine the causes of death.


"What we do know is losing that number of animals in such a short period of time puts us generally on a slippery slope to extinction," he said.


There are currently between 325 and 350 of the whales known to scientists. That's an improvement from 2000, when the population was counted at about 300.


!ADVERTISEMENT!

Source: Associated Press