American officials found a dead North Atlantic right whale floating off the coast of New Jersey this week.
Marine conservation experts are trying to secure a location for a necropsy to find out how the mammal died.
This is the first observed right whale death in U.S. waters in 2020.
Since 2017, 31 right whales have been found dead in U.S. and Canadian waters.
Many of the deaths were due to ship strikes or entanglements in fishing gear.
The North Atlantic right whale is an endangered species with about 400 remaining and only about 95 are breeding females.
