3 Right Whale Calves Spotted in Florida’s Atlantic Waters

A Southern right whale breaches near the shore of Muizenberg Beach in False Bay, Cape Town, on Oct. 11, 2013. Jennifer Bruce/AFP/Getty Images

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida—Researchers have reported seeing three rare right whale calves off Florida’s Atlantic coast.

Philip Hamilton of the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium says the calves are “a spark of hope” for the critically endangered marine mammals.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission researchers spotted three pairs of mothers and calves in the waters between Fernandina Beach and Ponte Vedra Beach in late December.

Right whales typically migrate from the North Atlantic to give birth off the coasts of Georgia and Florida in December through March.

Scientists estimate there are only about 450 North Atlantic right whales remaining. No newborn calves were spotted during the last season, and just five were counted during the previous year.

Southern right whale and calf spotted off the coast of Playa Grande, Chile. Austral Divers Centro de Buceo Quintay-Chile/Reuters

National Geographic reports that all right whale species have enjoyed international protection status since 1949. After they were given protected status, Southern right whales showed population growth, but Northern right whales are still at-risk, the most so of all large whale species.

Populations grow has been slow due to the long period of time it takes for the whale to be able to reproduce.

Right Whales

Of all large whales, right whales are the rarest. They grow up to 70 tons and 55 feet in length. They also have a life span of up to 70 years, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The gigantic mammals give birth to calves that weigh around 1.5 tons and are 10-15 feet long. These calves feed on their mother’s milk for 8 to 17 months after they are born.

A Southern Right Whale breaches in Hermanus, on Sept. 5, 2013. Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images

Cool and fertile waters off the Northeastern United States and Canada are home to North Atlantic right whales.

A Franca Austral whale (Southern Right Whale) and her white calf swim in the New Golf near Puerto Piramides at Peninsula Valdes, Patagonian province of Chubut, Argentina, on Sept. 30, 2015. Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images

The oceans of the world have two more right whale species: One is in the North Pacific (the North Pacific right whale). There are about 100 of them there.

Another is the Southern right whale, there are about 8,000 of them in the Southern Ocean.

The Target of Hunters

Whalers gave “Right whales” their names because they recognized them as the right ones to be hunted down.

These sea monsters are valued for their large quantities of oil and baleen.

National Geographic reports that the right whales float accommodatingly after being hunted because they possess thick blubber.

A full-scale model of Phoenix, a North Atlantic Right Whale, is seen on display at the Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History during a press preview in Wash., DC., on Sept. 24, 2008. Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

Right whales came close to extinction in 17th, 18th and 19th centuries because of the extensive whaling that happened during this period.