Endangered Right Whales Welcome 23 Calves — the Most Births Since 2009

Few animals are as precariously rare as the North Atlantic right whale. Once hunted to the edge of extinction and still threatened by vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, only around 380 of these massive baleen whales remain. So when researchers tallied the results of the 2025–2026 calving season, the news brought a wave of cautious optimism: 23 mother-calf pairs were documented off the southeastern United States, the highest number of births in 17 years and the fourth-highest count ever recorded.

The calving season runs from mid-November through mid-April, when pregnant females travel to the warm, shallow waters off Georgia and Florida to give birth. This year, 18 of the 23 mothers had already given birth at least once in the previous six years, and several were experienced veterans. Two of the mothers were over 40 years old, including well-known individuals nicknamed Juno and Ghost, each of which has now had at least nine calves over their long lives.

“Once hunted to the edge of extinction and still threatened by vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, only around 380 of these massive baleen whales remain.”

What encouraged scientists most was not just the number of calves but the rhythm of the births. For years, females had been calving only every seven to ten years — a sign of nutritional stress and a struggling population. This season, many mothers had given birth at shorter intervals, closer to the healthy norm of three to four years. As one New England Aquarium scientist put it, the shorter gaps give hope that the whales may be healthier and finding enough food to reproduce more regularly.

The right whale is still critically endangered, and a single strong season cannot undo decades of decline. Researchers stress that protecting these whales will require continued action to slow ships in their habitat and reduce deadly entanglements. Yet every new calf matters enormously for a population this small, and the sight of 23 young whales beginning their lives in the Atlantic is a powerful reminder that, with sustained care, even one of the world’s rarest large animals can find its way back from the brink.