Season’s first whale calf sighted off Sapelo Island | savannahnow.com

Talk about a big baby. This one is more than 10 feet long and weighs more than a ton. It’s the first right whale calf of the season, spotted Friday swimming alongside its mother about 20 miles east of Sapelo Island.

“We’re very encouraged by that,” said Clay George, wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. “Not only by the first calf but by the number of breeding females seen. There have been sightings of seven females known to have calved in the past.”

The calf’s mother was identified as Naevus, a 24-year-old who has given birth four times before, most recently in 2011.

“She’s been kicking them out,” said Patricia Naessig, right whale survey coordinator with the nonprofit Sea to Shore Alliance.

On Dec. 17, researchers saw Naevus swimming without a baby off Altamaha Sound.

“So, the calf was at most 3 days old when we sighted the mom and calf pair on December 20,” Naessig said.

Naevus’ calf joins a population estimated at just 510 individuals, making North Atlantic right whales among the most highly endangered of the large whales. So-named because their slow-moving, shore-hugging habits and tendency to float when dead made them the “right” whale to kill, they were hunted to near extinction by the early 1900s.

via Season’s first whale calf sighted off Sapelo Island | savannahnow.com.