{"id":27207,"date":"2019-05-10T00:05:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T07:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/?post_type=custom_news&p=27207"},"modified":"2019-05-09T20:10:25","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T03:10:25","slug":"north-atlantic-right-whales-very-important-mothers-day","status":"publish","type":"custom_news","link":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/news\/north-atlantic-right-whales-very-important-mothers-day\/","title":{"rendered":"North Atlantic Right Whales\u2019 Very Important Mother\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

This winter, seven North Atlantic right whales gave birth\u2014one for the very first time. The calves are a boon for the struggling species. Last year, the estimated 411 right whales that swim off the coast of Canada and the United States had no calves at all.<\/p>\n

North Atlantic right whales are endangered, and their population is dwindling. Christin Khan, a biologist at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, says that, given the situation, seven is not very many babies. \u201cWe still are really afraid for the future of this species and the possibility of extinction,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I\u2019m cautiously optimistic that we\u2019ll turn things around.\u201d<\/p>\n

These new mothers, and the other female whales, will be crucial. \u201cThey are our hope,\u201d says New England Aquarium Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life research scientist Philip Hamilton.<\/p>\n

In a recent paper<\/a> comparing North Atlantic right whales and southern right whales, a separate species that swims throughout the southern hemisphere, researchers asked why the number of southern right whales is growing while their northern counterparts decline. Scientists, including Hamilton, say the difference is mainly because adult females in the southern population are not dying at the same rate as adult females in the North Atlantic. Many of those deaths are from human causes, such as whales that get entangled in fishing gear<\/a>. Given that, each of this season\u2019s seven mothers is worth celebrating.<\/p>\n

#1204<\/h2>\n
\"right<\/a>

Photo by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, taken under NOAA permit 20556-01<\/p><\/div>\n

All North Atlantic right whales have their sightings and distinguishing features meticulously recorded in the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog<\/a>, which Hamilton maintains. The whale called #1204 has sightings going back to 1982, making her at least 38 years old. This season, she gave birth to her ninth known calf. Another one of her calves, named Champagne, is 10 years old and could soon become a mother herself.<\/p>\n

The veteran mom is rarely seen very far north, Hamilton notes, and doesn\u2019t visit two of the main summer hangouts for the species, the Bay of Fundy or the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He wonders whether females like #1204, whose habits are \u201ca bit more of a mystery,\u201d know about better places to feed.<\/p>\n

#2503 (Boomerang)<\/h2>\n
\"right<\/a>

Photo by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, taken under NOAA permit 20556-01<\/p><\/div>\n

Researchers have made more of an effort to give right whales names in recent years, Khan says, because it makes it easier to communicate about the whales to the public. Members of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium vote on a handful of whales to name at their annual meeting. Boomerang got her name from the shape of a scar on one of her tail flukes.<\/p>\n

This season, Boomerang had her fourth baby. That calf is born into a well-documented lineage: Boomerang\u2019s mother is named Trilogy, and her grandmother is Baldy, whose description in the catalog notes \u201clots of chin scars.\u201d Baldy was last seen in 2016, and as far as anyone knows, the new calf\u2019s great-grandmother is still swimming in the North Atlantic. Hamilton says that between the matriarch\u2019s calves and their own progeny, Baldy has been responsible for adding at least 23 whales to the population.<\/p>\n

#2791<\/h2>\n
\"right<\/a>

Photo by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, taken under NOAA permit 20556-01<\/p><\/div>\n

Whale #2791 doesn\u2019t have a name, but she does have three calves. Her last calf before this season\u2019s was born in 2009. A right whale female in good health can have a calf roughly every three years, and longer intervals like #2791\u2019s may be one factor contributing to the population\u2019s decline. Hamilton says injuries from past entanglements can cause whales to have longer gaps between calves. The struggle to find enough food in a changing climate is another likely factor.<\/p>\n

#3270 (Pico)<\/h2>\n
\"right<\/a>

Photo by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, taken under NOAA permit 20556-01<\/p><\/div>\n

North Atlantic right whales generally live along the eastern coast of North America, calving in the water off the southeastern United States, and feeding farther north. But second-time mom Pico caused a stir back in January 2009 by showing up in the Azores<\/a>, west of Portugal. She had been spotted the previous September in Canada\u2019s Bay of Fundy, implying an eastward journey that averaged nearly 33 kilometers per day for 101 days. Pico was back in the Bay of Fundy the following September. No one knows for sure why Pico took such a sudden cross-Atlantic vacation. \u201cThey likely do those trips a lot more than we know,\u201d Hamilton says.<\/p>\n

#3317<\/h2>\n
\"right<\/a>

Photo by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, taken under NOAA permit 20556-01<\/p><\/div>\n

Unlike the more mysterious moms, #3317 makes regular appearances up and down the coast. Since her birth in 2003, she\u2019s been sighted every year except one. This season\u2019s calf is her third. The mother of #3317 is Silt, named for the constantly shifting pattern of whale lice on her head.<\/p>\n

#3370<\/h2>\n
\"right<\/a>

Photo by Ralph Bundy, Marineland Right Whale Project, taken under NOAA\/NMFS research permit 20626<\/p><\/div>\n

Survey teams of scientists regularly fly planes over the coast to look for right whales. But #3370 was first spotted with her new calf by a member of the public, off a Florida beach in February. This is the second calf for #3370. She had also been seen swimming with Boomerang on New Year\u2019s Day, when both whales were pregnant.<\/p>\n

#4180<\/h2>\n
\"right<\/a>

Photo by Ed Perry\/Sebastian Inlet State Park<\/p><\/div>\n

One of this season\u2019s calves was doubly good news. That\u2019s because its mother, #4180, is a first-time mom\u2014and until now scientists weren\u2019t even sure whether #4180 was male or female. \u201cTo have an unknown-sex whale be actually female is really, really important,\u201d Hamilton says. Every potential mother is valuable insurance for the embattled population. Sometime in 2018, #4180 had a run-in with fishing gear and carried wounds on her back the next time researchers spotted her.<\/p>\n

#4180 was also the first new mother in the right whale population since 2016, Hamilton says. \u201cThat was really heartening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This winter, seven North Atlantic right whales gave birth\u2014one for the very first time. The calves are a boon for the struggling species. Last year, the estimated 411 right whales that swim off the coast of Canada and the United <\/p>\n

…<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27209,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":{"hero_video_url":null,"hero_video_caption":"","deck":"With just over 400 North Atlantic right whales in the wild, we are especially thankful for these new moms.","authors_group":[{"by_group":"by","contributors_group":[15518]}],"word_count_override":"700 words, about 5 minutes","podbean1":"","podbean2":"","redirect":"","geolocation":null,"related":[16125,17003],"twitterimage":27210,"facebookimage":27211,"twitterdescription":"","edited":"","factchecked":"","code":"","no_old_story_flag":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/custom_news"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27226,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27207\/revisions\/27226"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/17003"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/features\/16125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}