Environmental groups Tuesday accused NOAA of failing to do enough to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales after another of the mammals was found dead off the coast of Georgia, the victim of a boating accident.
NOAA said the calf’s carcass had been heavily scavenged by sharks and washed ashore at Cumberland Island National Seashore, a popular national park in the Peach State.
In a statement Monday, the agency identified the calf as the offspring of a 38-year-old right whale named Juno. The mother-baby pair had been spotted in early January, after the calf sustained serious injuries to its head, mouth and lip from a vessel strike, NOAA said.
With fewer than 360 of the right whales now remaining, conservation groups renewed their call for NOAA to impose speed limits on more boaters along the Atlantic coast to save the right whales. Vessel strikes rank as a leading cause of their deaths.
