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Endangered whale calf found dead
Associated Press
Published January 23, 2006
JACKSONVILLE BEACH - An endangered North Atlantic right whale calf was found dead Sunday off Florida's northeast coast, the second such death reported this month, officials said.
Biologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were towing the whale to shore, where a necropsy was scheduled for Monday, said Kim Amendola of the NOAA.
Recreational boaters reported the whale sighting to the U.S. Coast Guard around 10:30 a.m. about 16 miles off Jacksonville Beach, Amendola said.
Another right whale calf was reported dead off the Jacksonville coast on Jan. 10, NOAA officials said.
Preliminary necropsy results indicate that calf died from a vessel strike.
Once numbering in the thousands, only about 300 right whales remain in the North Atlantic.
Right whales were hunted to near extinction in the 19th century. They got their name from whalers who said they were the "right whales" to hunt because they were easy to approach and their high blubber content kept them afloat after they were killed.
[Last modified January 23, 2006, 00:59:12]
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