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A North Atlantic right whale named Division was found dead in U.S. waters this week, entangled in fishing gear. It’s the first entanglement death of 2026, according to the Canadian Whale Institute. 

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a news release Friday that an aerial survey team spotted a right whale carcass floating approximately 40 kilometres off the coast of Avon, N.C., on Jan. 27.

Scientists from the New England Aquarium confirmed it was Division, a four-year-old male. 

According to the release, the whale had a fishing line wrapped around his head and mouth, cutting into his blowhole and upper jaw. 

North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered, and scientists say there are fewer than 400 of them left. Entanglements and vessel strikes in U.S. and Canadian waters are the main causes of death, according to the NOAA.

Division was first spotted entangled more than a month earlier, on Dec. 3, and scientists noted that prolonged entanglement had harmed the whale’s overall health. 

Wildlife teams were able to remove some of the fishing gear in December, but poor weather and Division’s distance from the shore prevented them from fully disentangling him. He was last seen alive on Jan. 21. 

Division was the first detected North Atlantic right whale death since May 2024, the New England Aquarium said in a statement on Saturday.

Due to Division’s location and dangerous weather conditions, it won’t be possible to retrieve the carcass or perform a necropsy, the NOAA said. But federal authorities will analyze the fishing gear removed from the whale. 

Division had three previous documented entanglements over the years, according to the New England Aquarium.  

North Atlantic right whales are known to travel to Atlantic Canadian waters to feed. Division was often seen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in New Brunswick, where the species gradually migrated as ocean temperatures warmed, the aquarium said. 

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