Researchers hope to perform autopsy on rare right whale

PORTLAND, Maine --Researchers hope to eventually recover the carcass of a rare right whale that died of unknown causes in the Gulf of Maine.

The whale, one of an estimated 300 to 400 remaining North Atlantic right whales, was found dead on Sunday. The Canadian Coast Guard was able to take samples and attach a tracking buoy to the carcass on Wednesday 50 miles off Nova Scotia, officials said.

"From a scientific standpoint, it is incredibly important that we have a chance to autopsy this whale on land," Amy Knowlton, senior right whale researcher with the New England Aquarium in Boston, said in a statement.

No major trauma was detected when the whale was spotted by a routine aerial flight by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

But the whale, which was cataloged by the New England Aquarium, had suffered previously from an entanglement with fishing gear. Despite the entanglement, the whale was showing signs of improvement when he was last seen alive in 2005.