A right whale feeding in Cape Cod Bay. Photo courtesy of NOAA Fisheries – Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) range from Florida to the Canadian Maritime provinces.  A baleen whale in the Balaenidae family, these whales feed primarily on small copepods by swimming through the water with their mouths open.  North Atlantic right whales are one of the most endangered of the large whales, with only ~400 individuals in the population.  Living in the ‘urban’ ocean that is the east coast of the U.S. and Canada, these whales face threats from human activities, primarily ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.  Our lab is involved in several areas of research aimed at understanding and reducing these risks.  One current project is the ‘Whale Entangler’, a collaboration with the Consortium for Bycatch Reduction and Bellequant Engineering, we are trying to ‘reverse engineer’ entanglements in an effort to prevent them.

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