Season So Far? So-So – Georgia Wildlife Blog

If you’re thinking the 2024-2025 calving season has been meh, you’re right. At nine calves as of mid-February, even if one or two more are documented this winter, “It’s definitely not enough to recover the population,” DNR senior wildlife biologist Jessica Thompson said recently.

At the current rate of right whale deaths and injuries from entanglement in commercial fishing gear and vessel strikes, NOAA estimates recovery would take at least 50 calves a year – which isn’t possible given that only about 70 breeding females are left. However, population models suggest that right whale numbers could stabilize if entanglements and vessel strikes were sharply curtailed.

Possibly one factor in the lackluster calf count is that rain, fog and winds have limited monitoring by plane and boat. Yet those conditions aren’t unusual in winter, Thompson said. After the survey season, researchers will calculate the down time to see if it was more than normal.

Most mom-and-calf pairs will have left the waters off Georgia’s coast by March. The last survey flight for DNR is scheduled for Feb. 28, marking the official end of the season for Georgia. But Thompson said staff will remain ready to respond to whale sightings in March and even into April.

The two females, Koala (No. 3940) and Curlew (4190), that wandered around the tip of Florida and into the Gulf were last seen — as of Feb. 11 — off Cape San Blas, just south of Port St. Joe on the Florida Panhandle. It’s unusual for adult right whales to swim into the Gulf. It’s also unusual for adult females, both of them potential moms, to hang out for so long. Koala and Curlew were swimming with Black Heart (No. 3540) off the Carolinas in late November. About a month later, Black Heart was seen with a calf near Ponte Vedra on northeast Florida’s coast.

Braces and calf in December 2023 off Nassau Sound, Fla. (Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute/NOAA permit 26919)

A yearling whale born last winter to Braces (whale No. 3320) was photographed about 14 miles off Hatteras, N.C., on Feb. 18. The young one was only a calf when documented Dec. 23, 2023, with its mother off Nassau Sound, Fla. That was third known time Braces had given birth.

If the youngest is anything like mom, it’s tough. Braces has been entangled in commercial fishing gear at least three times, according to the New England Aquarium. She’s even named for entanglement scars on her lip “that make it look like she could be wearing braces.”

(Video or images of right whales used by media or other outlets must include the following: Taken by Georgia DNR under NOAA permit 26919. It is illegal to approach right whales in U.S. waters without a research permit. Other vessels, aircraft and drones must maintain a distance of at least 500 yards from these endangered whales. Researchers shown have the training and permits required to approach right whales safely and legally.)