Resilient whale tangled up in rope swims over 1,000 miles from Florida with its baby
A resilient whale named Snow Cone that has been entangled in rope for over a year has safely swam over 1,000 miles north from Florida with its baby.
The critically endangered, 17-year-old right whale and its calf were spotted off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts on April 23 and 24, according to the Center for Coastal Studies. It’s believed there are only about 336 North Atlantic right whales left in the world.
“Snow Cone is a survivor,” the center said in a news release.
The center said she gave birth to her baby at calving grounds located in the waters off of Georgia in December 2021 while caught up in the rope. In January, the whale was seen in Florida, NBC 12 reported.
In 2020, Snow Cone’s first baby was killed after it got hit by a ship before “she came through a life‐threatening entanglement in 2021,” the center noted. The rope is a concern for scientists because it has potential to cause infections.
In March 2021, the center’s Marine Animal Entanglement Response team “removed 300 feet of the rope wrapped around Snow Cone” while she was off the coast of Plymouth, Massachusetts, according to the center. However, Snow Cone swam away and began traveling through the Atlantic ocean before heading down south to give birth in December.
In December, when Snow Cone was spotted near Cumberland Island in Georgia, a disentanglement team decided that removing or cutting the rope “would be too dangerous” since her baby was nearby, the center noted.
Despite the ongoing struggle, the mother and calf have “successfully navigated the more than a thousand‐mile journey north to Cape Cod, appearing to avoid the two biggest threats to the survival of these critically endangered whales ‐ being struck by a ship or becoming further entangled,” the center said.
An aerial observer for the center who saw Snow Cone on April 23 reportedly said “she didn’t look awful, but she is noticeably skinnier.”
“It’s a relief that she’s still alive and that her calf looks good,” Ryan Schosberg added.
The center said it’s continuing to monitor the whereabouts of Snow Cone and her baby.
Right whales were named because “it was the ‘right’ whale to hunt” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “It moved slowly and would float after being killed.”
Now, they’re protected under federal law.
In February, Democrats in Congress introduced the “Right Whale Coexistence Act” in an effort to save the species from its population decline.
If the bill becomes law, it’ll allow $15 million in funding to go towards developing, testing and implementing “innovative technologies and other strategies to reduce the risk of entanglement in fishing gear and vessel strikes,” according to a news release from the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Without immediate and concerted conservation action to address the two major causes of decline…this iconic species could be effectively extinct within decades.”
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Resilient whale tangled up in rope swims over 1,000 miles from Florida with its baby."
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