Entangled North Atlantic right whale spotted off New Brunswick’s east coast

HALIFAX – A North Atlantic right whale entangled in fishing gear has been spotted off New Brunswick’s east coast near Shippagan.

Officials with the federal Fisheries Department say the five-year-old male was last seen Monday by Canadian and American observers aboard a surveillance aircraft flying over the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Department staff and marine mammal rescue groups were trying to find the whale on Tuesday. Federal officials say the plan is to attach a satellite tag to the entangled gear to track the whale.

And if weather and sea conditions allow, an attempt will be made to remove the gear from the critically endangered animal, known as No. 5192.

“We ask the public not to approach a rescue effort, should you see one underway,” the Fisheries Department said Tuesday in a statement. “Keep your distance. Responding to an entanglement is dangerous, and our partners need space and time to safely do their work.”

The population of these massive mammals is less than 400, though their numbers have been slowly increasing since 2020.

They migrate every spring from calving grounds off Florida and Georgia to feeding grounds that extend to the waters off New England, the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

With this latest entanglement, officials said it was unclear what type of fishing gear was involved or where it came from. Entanglements and vessel strikes are the leading causes of serious injury and death for right whales.

Last October, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium estimated the 2024 population at 384, an increase of 2.1 per cent since 2023.

The population increased by 150 between 2001 and 2011 and levelled off at about 500. Then a steep decline started in 2017 when 12 whales died in Canadian waters and another five died in U.S. waters.

Later that year, the Canadian government introduced a series of measures to improve protection for the whales, including increased aerial surveillance, restrictions on shipping lanes, slower speed limits for vessels, temporary fishing ground closures and real-time monitoring using underwater listening devices.

Scientists say that as the Atlantic Ocean has warmed, the whales have changed their migration patterns. Instead of heading to their traditional summer feeding grounds in the Bay of Fundy, most of the whales have been heading farther north to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where they encounter more ship traffic and busy fishing grounds.

Since January, at least two North Atlantic right whales have died. A four-year-old male named Division was found dead in January off the  coast of North Carolina. The cause of death was severe fishing gear entanglement. And less than two weeks later, a three-year-old female was found dead on an island off Virginia, though the cause of death remains unclear.

Since the calving season started in mid-November, however, researchers identified 23 new calves — the highest number of newborns since 2009.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2026.