February 7, 2022 — Each of the 13 calves born so far this winter have been greeted with joy, the news shared along the whales’ migration route from the waters off New England and Canada to the calving grounds off Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
But with an estimated population at 336 and falling, there’s no escaping the math, or the impact of human activities on the world’s most endangered large whale.
An estimated 30 whales die each year, according to federal officials. Vessel traffic, commercial fishing gear and a warming climate all threaten the whales.
An average of 11 calves were born each season over the past decade. It would take four times that many over a number of years to bring the whales back to a sustainable population, said Barb Zoodsma, large whale recovery coordinator for the Southeast for the National Marine Fisheries Service. “We’ve never seen that many calves.”