Meet the critically endangered whale that refuses to die

This is one tough whale.A critically endangered North Atlantic right whale — known to researchers as No.5192 — has survived multiple potentially deadly encounters with fishing gear, and despite being declared near death four years ago is still swimming.The 5-year-old whale was spotted tangled in fishing gear off Barnegat Inlet, NJ, on Oct.

10, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).He’s been on a federal list of dead and dying whales for four years but apparently nobody’s told him.“We’re aware of a sighting of North Atlantic right whale #5192 swimming off of Barnegat Inlet, New Jersey, on October 10,” NOAA spokesperson Ava DiFabritiis told The Post.“Stranding network partners and survey teams along the East Coast have been alerted and are awaiting new reports of the whale’s location.”The amazing mammal has somehow survived despite repeated encounters with potentially deadly fishing gear that put him on NOAA’s Whale Morbidity Case list, which tracks doomed whales with life-threatening diseases or injuries.The wandering whale’s troubles began in December 2022, when he was just 1 year old.

Researchers spotted him off Southern New England with wounds consistent with a fishing gear entanglement and added him to NOAA’s morbidity records, according to the agency’s report.But No.5192 kept swimming – and growing.A 5-year-old North Atlantic right whale can weigh roughly 20 tons and measure 35 feet long.Incredibly, he popped back up on NOAA’s radar this year.

On April 14, he was photographed swimming free of fishing gear in Cape Cod Bay, Mass.A week later, on April 21, he was spotted again in Massachusetts Bay, still free of gear.But disaster was just around the corner.On June 8, aerial observers spotted him in Canada’s Gulf of St.

Lawrence, dragging fishing line along the left side of his mouth.The line extended beyond his tail and disappeared into the water.Two days later, he was spotted near Canada’s ...