Scientists gather for the necropsy of the North Atlantic right whale found dead in late January off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Photo courtesy of NOAA Fisheries

Federal officials confirmed Wednesday that an endangered North Atlantic right whale found dead near Martha’s Vineyard in January died from “chronic entanglement” in fishing gear that belonged to a Maine lobsterman.

It’s the first time a member of Maine’s iconic industry has been directly connected to a whale death, and it could have major implications for how lobstermen fish in the future.

“It’s important to emphasize that it was the first known right whale mortality with Maine gear,” Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in a statement to the Press Herald. “It is premature at this point to speculate on the impact of this incident on future rulemaking. 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.”

Current lobstering regulations are in place through 2028.

The cause of death was confirmed through a necropsy, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA is still conducting a law enforcement investigation into the death, but officials have previously said that they don’t know who the lobster gear belonged to because what was recovered didn’t include the buoy with the ID tag.

NOAA closely monitors North Atlantic right whales because they have teetered on the brink of extinction. Since 2017, the agency has tracked nearly 150 North Atlantic right whales – 41 have died, 37 have been seriously injured, and 70 have been sublethally injured or are ill. The primary causes have been entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes in U.S. and Canadian waters.

The whale that was found dead Jan. 28 near Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts was labeled right whale #5120. It had been spotted tangled in rope several times, as early as August 2022. Surveyors last recorded seeing the whale in June 2023, noting that the rope wounds near the base of its tail had worsened. A whale preservation group was unsuccessful in several attempts to disentangle the calf. NOAA did not say how long the calf had been entangled in Maine gear.

The death was particularly distressing because the right whale was a young female. Right whales can live up to 70 years, and breeding females can give birth every four years.

This section of rope with a purple zip tie nub was found entangled on a North Atlantic right whale whose body was found at the end of January off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Photo courtesy of NOAA Fisheries

Maine lobster industry officials expressed fears in the aftermath of that death that it could lead to additional restrictions on lobstermen, who already are dealing with the effects of climate change.

“Everybody is concerned, everybody is distraught. We don’t want our gear to harm anything in the ocean. We spend more time out there than any of these people,” John Drouin, a Cutler lobsterman and member of the state Lobster Advisory Council, told the Press Herald in February. “But I personally am very concerned that NOAA is going to use any bit of information that it can in order to turn everything to: ‘The Maine lobster industry is the Big Bad Wolf.’ ”

For years, Maine lobstermen have been able to say that, although there have been entanglements, no death has been directly linked to gear from Maine. That’s no longer the case.

Some conservation groups said whale deaths linked to fishing gear should be a clear catalyst for change.

“Getting confirmation that this poor female right whale died from entanglement is so sad and enraging,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, based in Arizona. “Dying this way is a horrendous fate that no creature deserves, but it’ll happen again and again until we get these deadly fishing ropes out of the water. I hope this spurs the Maine fishing industry to cooperate on commonsense solutions like pop-up gear before it’s too late for right whales.”

Maine officials, however, have warned against any knee-jerk reactions.

“Maine’s lobster industry is the backbone of communities up and down our coast. Today’s update doesn’t change the fact that we must be real about tradeoffs after the first such recorded whale death in Maine’s history,” Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, said in a statement. “I continue to stand with Maine’s lobstermen in the face of any effort to use this incident to justify new mandates that would threaten their livelihoods and the foundation of communities that depend on this fishery.”

A fishing boat passes Widgery Wharf in Portland on Wednesday. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Spokespeople for Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and Rep. Chellie Pingree referred to a joint statement they made back in February about the whale death. They, too, cautioned against blaming lobstermen.

“We all agree that we must protect the fragile right whale population, but we must do so without endangering human lives or livelihoods in our state,” the statement read. “The fact remains that vessel strikes are also a significant source of mortality for right whales, and NOAA has failed to act to reduce that source of mortality. We also must continue to hold Canada accountable for the outsized role they contribute to NARW deaths. It is unacceptable that Maine lobstermen and women continue to be the primary target despite all of the actions they have taken.”

Maine lobstermen have long been worried that increased regulations, some of them proposed to protect whales, will make it harder to do their jobs.

There have been efforts by scientists, engineers and fishermen to develop a new, high-tech way to harvest lobster, but it hasn’t caught on it in Maine, and many lobstermen don’t even want to test the rope-free options.

State and federal regulators also have started requiring more fishermen, including lobstermen, to report what they caught and where. Many said those requirements are cumbersome and bad for competition.

All of this is happening at a time when the temperature of the Gulf of Maine is rising faster than almost anywhere else, pushing lobsters farther and farther north.