Wart's New Calf

Calving in right whales can often be a family affair with several generations of females calving in the same year.  This is the case with Wart this year.  She has been seen with a new calf, not in the southeastern calving area as would be expected this time of year, but rather in Cape Cod Bay!  This is the first time she has been photographed since early May 2010 when she was disentangled after first being seen entangled in 2008.

As mentioned in a post on December 31, 2012, Wart's daughter Black Heart and her grand-daughter Millipede both have been seen with calves.  This is Wart's seventh known calf and her first calf since 2005 when she had Black Heart.  

Why is she in Cape Cod Bay with a new calf at this time of year and what was she doing for the last few years is one of the reasons right whales keep everyone on their toes. Right whale mothers have been seen with new calves in areas other than the calving area but it is rare. Usually when a mother is seen with a calf outside the calving area it is because she was missed during the aerial surveys, presuming that she was in the calving area. However, right whale female Derecha, #2360, who gave birth in the Great South Channel in the late spring in 2007, headed south and was seen off Florida on 17 July.  She then turned around and was seen in the Bay of Fundy for the month of September.  It will be interesting to see if Wart will head south as well.

Right whale Derecha #2360 seen in the Bay of Fundy September 4, 2007 after swimming from the Great South Channel to Florida and back with her calf.

Right whale Derecha #2360 seen in the Bay of Fundy September 4, 2007 after swimming from the Great South Channel to Florida and back with her calf.

Two of the females seen on Jordan Basin in the Gulf of Maine just over a year ago have been seen with calves in January.  The Jordan Basin is a proposed mating area for right whales and with these two females, that connection now seems solid, but as with all things to do with right whales is probably one of several mating areas.  It is an excellent reason to protect the area for right whales and make it a critical right whale habitat.

With so few whales, it is amazing that they can do so many unexpected things.

 

First Calf of 2013 Calving Season

A recreational boater off Hilton Head, SC, reported the first right whale mother and calf for this calving season on November 27, 2012.  While most right whale females have their calves off the coast of Georgia and Florida, winter surveys extend up to North Carolina to cover the range of normal occurrence of right whale females and their calves.

Right whale male, Gemini, diving in the Bay of Fundy September 17, 2011

Of course, we are hopeful for more calves than in 2012 when only seven calves were born with one female loosing her calf, but we shall have to wait and see.  There were certainly more right whales in the Bay of Fundy in 2011 than in 2010, which may bode well.  A year of low food resources for a female would be reflected not the next calving season but the one following, for example 2010 lack of sightings of right whales in the Bay of Fundy and the 2012 low number of calves.  Females need to have a certain amount of blubber to ensure they can nurse their calf for a full year, without that blubber, they will not get pregnant.

In early December, a small group of right whales have been spotted off Jeffrey's Ledge in the Gulf of Maine and spurred a notice for large vessels in those waters to slow down to 10 knots.  This area in the Gulf of Maine is suspected to be a breeding area for right whales.  The calving area is not a breeding area for right whales, unlike humpback and grey whales.

Right whale surface active group in the Bay of Fundy August 24, 2011

Keeping our fingers crossed for more calves.  The season extends from December to March.

Great Photo



Photo credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission



This is a wonderful photograph taken by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission during one of their aerial surveys of the right whale calving area.  The right whale mother (with the white belly) is upside down with her calf on her belly.  We see this sometimes in the Bay of Fundy as well but the calves are much bigger by the summer. 

Unfortunately, the last memory of a right whale mother, also with a white belly, who died in the Bay of Fundy in 1992, Delilah, was of her upside down with her calf, Calvin (one of our adoptive whales), on her belly, wiggling back and forth, and surrounded by several males in a courtship group.