The severely entangled right whale found this week off the coast of New Jersey has been identified as a 4-year-old male and son of Dragon, another severely entangled whale found in late February off Nantucket with a buoy lodged in her mouth, according to @CenterOceanLife.

Neither are expected to survive.

“To have two members of the same right whale family become severely entangled in the same year highlights the entanglement threat that right whales are facing every day,” said Amy Knowlton, a senior scientist with the aquarium’s right whale team.

“Finding this latest case of yet another right whale entangled in fishing gear demonstrates, again, the need for quick, decisive changes to how fisheries operate,” said Peter Corkeron, a senior scientist and chair of the Kraus Marine Mammal Conservation Program at the Aquarium.

When last seen, Dragon, a 19-year-old reproductive female right whale, was emaciated, with unhealthy looking skin. The buoy appeared to prevent her mouth from closing.

The aquarium has documented over 1,500 entanglements since 1980 and has observed a steadily increasing level of related severe injuries and deaths. Some 86 percent of right whales have been entangled at least once, with more than half of them entangled twice or more.

The young whale was last seen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada on June 26 and again on July 7. NOAA Fisheries is working on a disentanglement plan, according to the aquarium.

Some right whales have been entangled as many as eight times over the course of their lives. Such entanglements are often life-threatening and are devastating to the species, which now numbers only around 400.

“To learn of yet another entanglement that will lead to a right whale’s demise is heart wrenching and frustrating because these cases are preventable,” Knowlton said.

To learn more about how entanglements are affecting right whales, check out @Entangled_Film at http://www.entangled-film.com .