MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Julie van der Hoop and marine biologist
Michael Moore confer during a recent expedition on
R/V Tioga. The pair was using a tensiometer to measure drag forces created by 15 sets of fishing gear that had been removed from entangled right whales. Over the last 40 years, at least
31 right whales have died as a direct result of entanglement and every year and on average 25.9% of animals
acquire new entanglement scars. Van der Hoop is using the data they collected to understand the energy burden that entanglement places on marine mammals.
