Meet the New Moms and Calves – Georgia Wildlife Blog

Dec. 30 proved a stellar day for North Atlantic right whale sightings.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission survey team spotted two new moms and calves, plus two more adult whales, along Florida’s Atlantic coastline.

Black Heart (No. 3540) and calf approximately 1.5 miles off South Ponte Vedra, Fla., on Dec. 30 (FWC/NOAA permit 26919)

The lineup, which raised the number of calves documented this winter to five and was reported by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, included:

Right whale catalog No. 3503, nicknamed “Caterpillar,” and calf about 4 nautical miles off South Ponte Vedra, Fla.
“Black Heart,” catalog No. 3540, and a calf some 2 miles closer to shore off South Ponte Vedra.
“Coral” (No. 4980) and an unidentified right whale off the coast of Mayport, Fla.

Backgrounder from the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog, curated by the New England Aquarium, shows that Black Heart is 20 years old and this is her second known calf. Her previous calf, born in 2023, was never seen after that year. (And if you’re wondering, her nickname comes from a bald but blacker spot at the front of her callosity that sometimes takes the shape of a heart.)

Caterpillar is also 20 but this is her first documented calf. Her nickname refers to the large propellor scars that score her body, stark reminders of a vessel strike when she was only 2.

You might remember that Coral, a 6-year-old female, was seen with four other whales off the coast of South Carolina in mid-December. Black Heart was seen sans calf and apparently pregnant Nov. 20 in North Carolina waters.

(Florida FWC right whale aerial surveys are funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Coast Guard, Navy and NOAA Fisheries.)