CAPE ROMAIN, S.C. – People on boats off the coast of the Carolinas have recently seen three possible mothers with a calf. This could be a good sign for the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale population.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the first sighting of a calf was by a boater off Cape Romain, South Carolina, on November 24. The boater said they saw a mother with a baby.
Marine scientists said they haven’t been able to find out how healthy the baby whale is or which mother it belongs to, but they are keeping a close eye on the waters off the Southeast coast.
The animals spend most of their time in the western Atlantic, off the coasts of Canada and the Northeast. For the breeding season, they move about 1,000 miles southward.
From about the middle of November to the middle of April, this is when mothers with their kids are most likely to be seen along the coasts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
NOAA Fisheries says there are now only about 370 North Atlantic right whales left in the world. This is down from a high point of about 20,000 in the late 1800s.
The whales have been having an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) since 2017, which has made dozens of them sick, hurt, or kill themselves.
It is thought that every female North Atlantic right whale and her calf is very important to the survival of this endangered species.
Biologists say that the species needs to have at least 50 babies a year to stop the decline because the population is dying faster than it can reproduce.
NOAA Fisheries has long wanted to raise speed limits for boats in coastal areas to cut down on collisions, but Congress has been blocking their efforts.
“While entanglements are still the main cause of death and injury, at least six injuries and deaths were caused by vessel strikes this year [2024], which shows how important it is to solve this problem soon.” “The fact that more than 50 right whales have been spotted together in the New York shipping lane all summer makes this point even stronger,” said Heather Pettis, a research scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center and the head of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.
NOAA said it recently got $82 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to help fund answers and fight the threats the species faces.
From North Carolina to Florida, call the volunteer reporting network at 888-979-4253 or the NOAA Fisheries hotline at 877-942-5343 to report seeing a right whale.
