A quarter of all North Atlantic right whales believed to be in a small area off the Maine coast

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 24, 2025

Maine’s top fisheries official on Friday asked lobstermen to reduce their vertical fishing lines in an area in the Gulf of Maine where endangered North Atlantic right whales are believed to be gathered. “As many as 90 individual right whales have been identified” off the western edge of Jeffreys Ledge, Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said. Roughly 370 North Atlantic right whales are estimated to be living. NOAA Fisheries describes them as “one of the world’s most endangered large whale species” and cites vessel strikes and entanglement with fishing gear as the leading causes of mortality.