About 380 North Atlantic right whales remain, with roughly 70 reproductive-age females
Researchers in Canada photographed an unidentified baby North Atlantic right whale off Anticosti Island in Quebec in September, and scientists with the New England Aquarium in Boston said this week that an analysis of photographs and whale data determined the animal was a calf likely born months earlier. The roughly 15,000-pound (6,804-kilogram) calf went unseen during winter surveys for the species, and researchers did not spot it despite boat-based and aerial surveys along the U.S. East Coast throughout the spring and summer, the aquarium said.
The confirmation puts the number of calves documented from the most recent birthing season at 24, the aquarium said — the most productive year for the whales since 2009 and the fourth-highest count on record. North Atlantic right whales number only about 380 in the world, and their population has fallen since 2010.
The calf was seen with its mother, a 38-year-old whale known to researchers as Silt. Right whales give birth off the southeastern United States in winter before venturing north to New England and Canada to feed.
Amy Warren, a scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center, said the whales are so rare that researchers catalog them extensively through photography, making a missed calf unusual — and the discovery a welcome surprise. “Silt was briefly seen in the southeastern U.S. calving grounds in February 2026, so it’s possible she had the calf there but snuck away before they were documented together,” Warren said. “This is an exciting discovery for us so late in the year.”
The sighting off Quebec came from researchers with Mingan Island Cetacean Study, a nonprofit research organization in the province’s coastal Côte-Nord region. Richard Sears, the organization’s founder and director, said scientists are celebrating the animal’s addition to a successful breeding season for the rare whales.
“It just goes to show you how big the ocean is, and how those animals can get lost out there,” Sears said.
Scientists closely track right whale births because the tiny population needs successful calving years to remain viable. Only about 70 reproductive-age females are left in the population, and scientists have said the whales have reached 20 calves in a season only a few times since 2010.
The whales’ numbers started falling in 2010, and the population lost about 25% of its whales between 2010 and 2020, scientists have said. The animals are vulnerable to collisions with large ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear, and scientists have said the warming ocean has heightened those threats because the whales have strayed from protected areas.
The species also went through 2018 with no births at all. Recent years have been slightly more encouraging, with the whales gaining back some of their population since 2020.
Conservationists, however, have decried recent moves by the U.S. government to delay new protections for the whales for a decade in favor of commercial fishing interests.