It sounds like a crime show episode at sea: In late January 2024, federal regulators learned that a dead female North Atlantic right whale had been sighted near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The whale was towed to shore, where more than 20 U.S. and Canadian scientists converged to perform a necropsy, or animal autopsy.
This article was written by: Joshua Reed, Macquarie University; Leslie New, Ursinus College; Peter Corkeron, Griffith University, and Rob Harcourt, Macquarie University. Peter Corkeron consults for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility on right whale conservation issues. He headed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s large whale research program for the northeastern US from 2011 to 2019, then led the New England Aquarium’s right whale research program through 2022.