Baby boom for northern right whales

The right whales are one of the most endangered populations of large mammals anywhere in the world

By CNN's Natalie Pawelski

AMELIA ISLAND, Florida (CNN) -- The world's most endangered great whale is experiencing a baby boom.

Researchers monitoring northern right whales off the Georgia and Florida coasts have counted 25 newborns since December. One died of unknown causes but 24 surviving babies is a record for one year.

"This is an exciting year ... witnessing a population on the brink of extinction exhibit signs that it might actually make it, that it might have a fighting chance," said Chris Slay of the New England Aquarium, who spends several months a year observing the whales.

There are fewer than 350 northern right whales. They got their name from whalers, who considered them the "right whale" to hunt -- they move slowly and stay close to shore, are very oily and blubbery and float for quite a while after they die.

Whaling drove right whales to the brink of extinction.

"This population of right whales is one of the most endangered populations of large mammals anywhere in the world," said Slay. "This is our white rhino. This is our giant panda."

Each day from December through March, weather and funding permitting, teams of researchers fly over the calving grounds to count the whales. Last year, they only saw one newborn.

Researchers think this year's bumper crop of babies has something to do with plankton, the microscopic plants and animals that right whales eat. During La Nina -- a weather phenomenon characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific -- plankton production dropped off in the Gulf of Maine, the right whales' summer home.

It's possible that female whales couldn't find enough food and were too malnourished to conceive or carry calves to term.

Plankton production is up again and so is the number of calves.

Protecting mother and baby

Female right whales need a lot of energy to give birth to a 1-ton baby and nurse the giant child. During those first months, mothers and their young spend a lot of time at the water's surface, nursing. That often puts them in harm's way -- in the path of ships.

The number-one known cause of death for right whales is ship collisions.

The calving area is near major commercial ports and military bases. Giant container ships, submarines and other military and commercial vessels crowd the shipping lanes. One of this year's new moms bears recent scars marking where a boat, probably a large yacht, ran across her back.

In an effort to keep boats from running into whales, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Navy run an early-warning system. When researchers or others see whales, they file a report and the Coast Guard broadcasts a warning to ships in the area. Every large commercial vessel entering the calving zone has to check in with the Coast Guard, and gets information on avoiding the whales.

It's been years since there was a confirmed case of a ship killing a right whale. And with the record number of newborns, this may be the year in which the world's rarest big whale increases its numbers.

Controversy swells around whaling commission meeting
June 29, 2000
Report: Northern right whale on path to extinction
March 18, 1999
Right whales in the wrong place
March 4, 1999
Researchers: Right whales unusually scarce off Southeast Coast
February 2, 1999

Whales on the Net
Wildlife Conservation Society
NOAA - La Nina

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