Serious injury and mortality determinations for baleen whale stocks along the Gulf of Mexico, United States East Coast, and Atlantic Canadian Provinces, 2017-2021

Opportunistic reports were used to calculate rates of human-caused serious injury and mortality to baleen whale stocks along the Gulf of Mexico, United States East Coast, and Atlantic Canadian provinces from 2017 through 2021. All available information for reported whale injury and mortality events was evaluated using established criteria to assign injury severity and cause of injury or death for each event. The average annual rate of detected human-caused serious injury and mortality during the period was 7.1 for North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis), 15.15 for Gulf of Maine humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), 2.09 for western North Atlantic fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), 9.4 for Canadian East Coast minke whales (B. acutorostrata), 0.6 for Nova Scotian sei whales (B. borealis), 0 for western North Atlantic blue whales (B. musculus), and 0.2 for northern Gulf of Mexico Rice’s whales (B. ricei). The number of serious injuries and mortalities not reported is unknown, and actual levels may be much higher.