North Atlantic right whales, the most endangered of New England’s whales, are making a modest comeback, according to New England Aquarium’s senior scientist Moira Brown. American efforts to protect the endangered species, however, appear to be less successful than Canada’s, Brown said last week in a speech sponsored by the Rhode Island Natural History Survey at the University of Rhode Island.
The current population of 450 North Atlantic right whales annually migrates from winter calving areas along the coast of Florida and Georgia to summer feeding areas near Cape Cod and Nova Scotia. The typical right whale is 50 to 60 feet long and weighs 60 to 70 tons.
Recovery of the species will be slow, Brown predicted, because female right whales do not give birth until they are nine years old – and then only produce one calf every three years under optimal conditions. In the 1980s, the closely observed species produced about 12 calves per year, Brown said, but that dropped to just one birth in 2000.
Since then, however, the whales have averaged 20 offspring a year, with a record 39 births in 2009.
“Something looks much better,” said Brown, who is also a senior scientist with the Canadian Whale Institute. Marine biologists have yet to pinpoint the cause of the baby boom, she added.