The Virginian-Pilot
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Rescuers responded last week to a second live right whale stranding in North Carolina in six weeks.
The stranding was noteworthy in that the whale was a 2-year-old calf, making it the first known stranding of a right whale other than a newborn in the United States in recent memory, according to a news release.
The Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Team, as well as state and federal responders, found the whale on Wednesday on a shoal two miles off Cape Lookout, N.C. The whale was alive but in such poor condition that the team decided to euthanize it.
A necropsy revealed entanglement marks and a twisted spine. Further tests will determine if the spinal condition was caused by nets.
On Dec. 16, a live right whale newborn was stranded off the coast of Avon, N.C. That whale later died.
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