Massachusetts officials monitoring critically endangered right whales after pod appears

“On Monday, February 12, 2024, the Massachusetts Environmental Police (MEP) Patrol Boat Thomas Paine was underway in Cape Cod Bay when they located this pod of critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW).

This patrol was part of the Massachusetts Environmental Police’s conservation efforts to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whales. The MEP vessels have also assisted National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by tracking the locations of the migrating whales as they arrive in the waters of the Commonwealth.

Over the next two months the MEP vessels will continue their conservation efforts by tracking the NARW, ensuring all vessels abide by approach and speed restrictions around the whales and that all non-compliant vertical buoy lines are removed.

For more information go to fisheries.noaa.gov/species/north-atlantic-right-whale. “-Massachusetts Environmental Police.

Massachusetts Environmental Police photo.

Wood’s Hol Oceanographic Institution.NOAA photo.