A right whale mother and calf photographed in 2012FLICKR, FWC FISH AND WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTEScientists tracking the endangered North Atlantic right whale have not spotted any newborns this year. Right whale mothers normally give birth and nurse off the US coast at this time, so no signs of new babies might signal dire consequence for the species.
“It’s a pivotal moment for right whales,” Barb Zoodsma of the National Marine Fisheries Service tells the Associated Press (AP). “If we don’t get serious and figure this out, it very well could be the beginning of the end.”
Trained spotters in airplanes have been searching coastal waters for mother-and-calf pairs since December. They will continue surveying the waters until Saturday (March 31), but so far have found nothing. It’s not likely there will be any last-minute newborn right whale sightings, says Zoodsma, who oversees the right whale recovery program in the U.S. southeast. If so, it will be the first year spotters haven’t seen new right whales since aerial surveys started in 1989.
About 450 North Atlantic right whales are alive today, with only ...
