All,
Please see below a message from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
Division of Marine Fisheries, lifting the advisory to mariners and
fishermen for right whales in the western side of the Cape Cod Bay.
Regards,
Pat
RIGHT WHALE AGGREGATION DEPARTS CAPE COD BAY – ADVISORY LIFTED. NO
FURTHER EXTENSIONS OF WHALE-SAFE FISHING RULES REQUIRED.
An unusually late season aggregation of endangered right whales in Cape
Cod Bay has dispersed. Recent aerial and vessel-based surveys by the
Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), under contract to the MA Division of
Marine Fisheries, have determined that the large aggregation of right
whales observed in the Cape Cod Bay Critical Habitat over the last
several weeks have departed. Plankton densities also indicate a great
decline in the right whales' food resource suggesting that right whale
aggregations are not likely to return in the near future.
The state would like to thank fishermen and mariners for their
assistance and compliance with these measures to protect this highly
endangered animal.
For more information, visit the Marine Fisheries website at
http://www.mass.gov/marinefisheries
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