The north Atlantic right whale calf born to a female named Juno was celebrated as the first calf of the season when it was sighted off Georgetown, S.C., on Nov. 28. The baby was a hopeful sign for the highly endangered species that migrates to the South Carolina, Georgia and northeast Florida to give birth each winter.
But on Jan. 3 the calf became a grim statistic when anglers spotted it off Edisto, S.C. with multiple propeller wounds to its head and lip. Biologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who reviewed video of the calf shared on social media worry that the injuries may prevent the calf from nursing successfully.
They concluded the 6-week-old calf is likely to die.
With fewer than an estimated 350 individuals remaining, North Atlantic right whales are approaching extinction, NOAA Fisheries reports. An Unusual Mortality Event was declared for North Atlantic right whales in 2017, and currently includes 122 individuals (36 dead, 35 seriously injured, and 51 sublethally injured or ill). Entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes in both U.S. and Canadian waters are these injuries and deaths.
For now, Juno’s calf is one of the 35 seriously injured.
Wildlife Biologist Mark Dodd of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources held out some hope for the injured calf’s survival, noting that its wounds showed signs of healing.
“If the animal can still nurse and avoid massive systemic infection it could survive,” he said. “But based on what we’ve seen in the past, the prognosis is poor.”
An estimated 348 individual right whales remain, Dodd said. Of those, 69 are adult females, which are critical for the species’ survival. “If we get below 50 adult females the population is essentially functionally extinct,” Dodd said.
To protect right whales, speed limits are in place for vessels over 65 feet, requiring them to travel at 10 knots or less in designated Seasonal Management Areas when those areas are active (Nov. 1-April 30 north of Georgia’s Sapelo Island, and Nov. 15-April 15 south of Sapelo; see maps).
NOAA has proposed expanding its regulation to include smaller vessels, but sport- and commercial fishing interests as well as harbor pilots object. Coastal Georgia Congressman Buddy Carter has sided with those who oppose the rule’s expansion. But smaller boats have been known to injure and kill right whales, including a 2021 incident off Florida when the 54-foot sportfisher About Time struck a mother/calf pair, killing the baby.
NOAA’s announcement of injuries to Juno’s calf sparked calls from environmental groups to finalize the expanded regulation.
(See a video of Juno and her calf before the injury here.)
“A right whale calf currently has a 1 in 14 chance of dying before its first birthday from a vessel strike,” Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a prepared statement. “Yet the Biden administration is inexplicably dragging its feet in finalizing a new regulation to protect vulnerable mother-calf pairs from being run over by boats — and suffering protracted, agonizing deaths like the one Juno’s calf likely faces — if they aren’t killed outright.”
Oceana Campaign Director Gib Brogan responded similarly.
“It’s been almost a year and a half since the Biden administration proposed the new vessel speed rule to help protect North Atlantic right whales from this very threat – boat strikes,” he wrote in a prepared statement. “Today we’re still waiting for the government to do what it knows needs to be done. It’s clear current safeguards are not working … The question is: Why is the Biden administration delaying a stronger vessel speed rule while whales are needlessly dying?”
It’s not yet clear what size vessel injured Juno’s calf, but scientists, including those at Georgia DNR will work in the coming weeks to infer the vessel size from the size of the calf’s wounds.
Boaters off the coast of Georgia, South Carolina and northeast Florida are being asked to report sightings of the injured calf and other right whales at 877-WHALE-HELP (877-942-5343) or via the U.S. Coast Guard on marine VHF channel 16. Please provide time, location and sighting details. Federal regulations require staying at least 500 yards away and never pursuing or following one.