When an endangered female North Atlantic right whale spends months, even years, disentangling itself from cast-off fishing nets, there's not much energy left over for mating and nursing calves.

Coping with such debris, along with ship collisions and other forms of human encroachment, have severely stymied recovery of the majestic sea mammals long after explosive harpoons and factory ships nearly wiped them out, according to a study published Wednesday.

Once numbering in the tens of thousands, the northern whale's population - hovering around 450 today - climbed slowly from 1990, but began to drop again around 2010.

Had the Canadian and US waters they plied during that quarter of a century been pristine and uncluttered by human traffic, "the species' numbers would be almost double what they are now, and their current emergency wouldn't be so dire," scientists led by Peter Corkeron of the NOAA Northeastern Fisheries Science Center in Massachusetts reported.

More to the point, there would be twice as many female whales: "The general slope of the recovery trajectory is driven by female mortality," they added.

From 1970 to 2009, 80 percent of 122 known North Atlantic right whale deaths were caused by human objects or activity.