Source: Adam Wagner, WILMINGTON STAR-NEWS, 11/24/17

After years of steady improvement, one of the Atlantic ocean’s most at-risk whales -- a species with strong ties to North Carolina -- is in perilous decline, according to researchers. The North Atlantic right whale, historically a target for harpooners, saw its population improve from 270 whales in 1990 to 483 in 2010, according to research led by Richard Pace of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, based in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The population fell to 458 whales by 2015.

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