One of the World’s Most Endangered Whales Is Experiencing a Mini Baby Boom

TWO MORE RIGHT WHALE CALVES SEEN IN #CAPECOD BAY! On 4/11/19 the CCS #rightwhale aerial survey team saw 2 more mom/… https://t.co/owh2HdvQSW — CoastalStudies (@CCSPtown) 1555092647.0 With just over 400 known individuals left, the North Atlantic right whale was once decimated virtually to extinction by commercial whalers by the early 1890s, leading to their 1970 listing under the Endangered Species Act . Hopes for their recovery were dismal last year after researchers did not report any new calves last summer. However, the Center for Coastal Studies ( CCS ) right whale aerial team now says they spotted two mother and calf pairs in Cape Cod Bay. The two mothers, dubbed EgNo4180 and EgNo3317, bring the total number of new calves off the coast of Massachusetts this year to three. EgNo4180 was first spotted in 2010, indicating that she is at least nine years old. She was seen again last April, but researchers were not aware that she was pregnant at the time — or that she was indeed a female. Unfortunately, at some point between then and now she encountered gear and was most recently seen with new entanglement wounds on her back, reports CCS. The other new mother, […]

Click here to view original web page at One of the World’s Most Endangered Whales Is Experiencing a Mini Baby Boom