The number of one of the planet's most endangered whales may be rebounding.
Clearwater Marine Aquarium researchers counted 23 Right Whale calves during their annual survey. That's up from 11 mother-calf pairs counted last year.
The whales live in the Atlantic from Florida northward to North Carolina, although their range is expanding north as the oceans heat up. They're susceptible to ship strikes, and fewer than four hundred are known to remain.
Melanie White directs the North Atlantic Right Whale conservation project with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
"This is a critically endangered species, and so every individual is vitally important to the population," she said. "And the number is well above where it was in previous years, actually well over a decade, have we gotten a chance to see mother calf pairs so high."
White said there's no clear reason for the increase, other than their food supply seems to be stable and fewer boat strikes were recorded.
"There's a lot of work up and down the entire East Coast trying to protect these whales, not only on the calving grounds, but also on the feeding grounds in the northern portion of the North Atlantic Ocean, where they're going for their feeding seasons," she said. "So these animals need to be able to find food and have a good supply of food so they can not only become pregnant, but bring that calf to term."
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From November through April, the program's aerial survey team conducted regular monitoring flights over the Atlantic coast. They were supported by partners including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
The dangers remain.
The Trump administration said it wants to delay new rules on ship speeds in calving grounds by almost a decade to protect commercial fisheries.
A proposal by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, would push back new federal protections for right whales to 2035. He says Maine's lobster fisheries would've been affected by any new regulations on boat speeds in the whale's calving zones.
White says historically, these whales have been known to spend their summer months in the Gulf of Maine
"Just over a decade, these whales have shifted north, and their food supply shifted because the waters in the Gulf of Maine were getting warm, and so they're going to go wherever their food is," she said.
The continued existence of the whales is threatened. There are only around 380 creatures left.
"Each one is extremely important, but these whales still face threats. They're not dying from old age. These whales are dying from human-related activities," White said. "Vessel strikes or entanglements in fishing gear, these are the leading causes of deaths for these whales."
Observations of right whales started back in 1973, and aerial surveys started in the 1980's. Still, scientists have no idea how long they can live or how long these mammals can reproduce.
Right whales got their name for a good reason — they have a lot of blubber for oil and floated after being harpooned, making them the "right" whale to hunt. By the time they were finally protected from hunting in 1935, their numbers had been reduced to around 100 in the North Atlantic.
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