An aerial survey team spotted North Atlantic right whale No. 5132 entangled in fishing gear off the coast of North Carolina on Dec. 16. Credit: Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute, taken under NOAA Fisheries Permit No. 26919

A third endangered North Atlantic right whale has been reported entangled in fishing gear within one week, this time off the coast of North Carolina.

Two of the whales are so seriously injured that they are expected to die.

Right whale No. 5132 was spotted last Monday, Dec. 16, about 60 miles east of North Carolina’s Outer Banks with several fishing lines wrapped around its head and mouth, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Friday.

A male juvenile born in 2021, it was last seen gear-free two months ago in the Bay of Fundy, which is northeast of Maine, stretching between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The entangled whale was spotted by an aerial survey team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute in Clearwater, Florida. Two buoys were attached to a line that wrapped around the whale, with a single line trailing more than 100 feet beyond its tail.

“After reviewing the entanglement, NOAA Fisheries biologists have made a preliminary determination that it meets the Unusual Mortality Event criteria as a ‘serious injury’ case,” NOAA Fisheries reported. “This designation means that right whale No. 5132 is likely to die as a result of the entanglement.”

A  caption on an aerial photo of the whale noted that “potentially identifying marks on the gear have been blurred to protect the privacy of individuals.”

NOAA spokesperson Andrea Gomez didn’t respond to questions about the identifying marks, where the gear might have originated and whether it came from Maine specifically.

“NOAA Fisheries is working with network partners and fellow agencies to determine the origin of the gear,” Gomez said in an email Monday.

NOAA’s Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program includes various volunteer, research, tribal and government agencies.

Regardless of where the ropes came from, the recent whale injuries could affect fishing regulations in Maine and elsewhere along the East Coast. Government officials, wildlife groups and fishermen have clashed for years over whether changes are necessary to better protect right whales — and at what point those changes would destroy the region’s fishing industries.

Right whale No. 5132 is the 151st individual documented in the ongoing North Atlantic right whale Unusual Mortality Event listing, which began in 2017 and includes dead, seriously injured and otherwise health-compromised whales.

Maine fishing gear was linked to one of 41 right whale deaths for the first time this year. The whale was found dead near Martha’s Vineyard in January. The official cause of death — “chronic entanglement” in fishing gear that belonged to a Maine lobsterman — was announced in October.

“It is premature at this point to speculate on the impact of this incident on future rulemaking,” Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in an emailed statement at the time. “However, Maine is committed to ensuring that future regulations are based on robust data, including improved information on right whale presence that (the Department of Marine Resources) is developing and the enhanced information on the location of fishing activity from recently enacted requirements for state and federal lobster harvesters.”

Decimated by centuries of commercial whaling, North Atlantic right whales were listed as endangered in 1970 and safeguarded by the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972.

Now, they are considered critically endangered and approaching extinction, with only about 370 remaining, according to NOAA Fisheries. Primary causes of injury and death are fishing gear entanglements and vessel strikes in both U.S. and Canadian waters.

Last Tuesday, NOAA Fisheries reported that an aerial survey by its staff spotted two entangled right whales swimming approximately 50 miles southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Dec. 9.

The first was right whale No. 5110, a juvenile male first seen as a calf in 2021 and most recently seen gear-free in April in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. This whale had a thick line passing across its head and back, causing serious injury that likely will result in death, NOAA biologists determined.

The second right whale spotted on Dec. 9 was No. 4120, an adult female with two fishing lines exiting the left side of its mouth. First seen as a calf in 2011, it was most recently seen gear-free in July about 50 miles off Long Island, New York. NOAA biologists have determined that injury is sublethal, meaning it won’t likely kill the whale, but it will compromise its health.

NOAA Fisheries teams will monitor the whales and determine whether a response is possible.

Growing more than 50 feet long and weighing up to 70 tons, right whales are among the largest mammals. They are filter feeders, consuming 5,500 pounds of plankton daily. They are identified by the unique shapes of raised white tissue called callosities on their heads.

Right whales migrate seasonally and may travel alone or in small groups, Gomez said. During the spring, summer and into the fall, many of these whales can be found in waters off New England and farther north into Canadian waters, where they feed and mate.

Migration patterns vary, Gomez said, but each fall, some right whales travel more than 1,000 miles south to the shallow, coastal waters of their calving grounds off South Carolina, Georgia and northeastern Florida.