Entangled North Atlantic Right Whale spotted off Shippagan, N.B.

The federal Fisheries Department is on the lookout for an entangled North Atlantic Right Whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Shippagan, N.B.

The department says the whale was observed on Saturday by a Fisheries and Oceans Canada aircraft.

The whale, which has been identified as the 2021 calf of the whale known as 3720, was spotted about 48 nautical miles east of Shippagan.

Officials said they do not know the type of gear that the whale is entangled in, or where it came from. On Twitter, Fisheries and Oceans Canada said the whale was “entangled behind its tail, with buoys and ropes trailing behind it.”

Marine animal response teams are on stand-by, and if the conditions allow, efforts will be made to disentangle the whale when it is spotted again.

The animal’s last known sighting was in March 2022, off the coast of Provincetown, MA.

Late last month, officials said another entangled whale — nicknamed Snow Cone — was spotted between northern New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Only about 336 North Atlantic right whales remain in the world, and breeding females are tracked closely by scientists.

— With a file from The Canadian Press