Report Has Cause Of Death Of Right Whale

A preliminary report has been released on the death of an endangered right whale that washed ashore off Edgartown last month.

International Fund for Animal Welfare experts say the whale, known as "5120," died from wounds associated with entanglement in fishing gear.

The necropsy of the three-year-old female determined that a rope deeply embedded in her tail had in fact been there for nearly 18 months.

This only tightened around the whale's body, leaving her in chronic pain.

Efforts by a response team to free her from the rope off Provincetown in January of last year failed.

IFAW research shows nearly 90-percent of North Atlantic Right Whale deaths were caused by collisions with boats or entanglement.

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)