After no sightings last year, endangered right whale calf spotted off Florida coast

For the first time in nearly two years, a critically endangered right whale calf was spotted off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, last Friday, swimming next to its mother.

During the winter, right whales usually make their way to the coasts of Florida and Georgia from Maine and Canada for calving season, but last year, no calves were spotted along the Atlantic seaboard. "The real key is that this mother-calf pair is a strong indication that this year is going to be a more active calving season for us and I look forward to seeing bunches of new moms and calves," Frank Gromling, a member of the Marineland Right Whale Project, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

There are only about 450 North Atlantic right whales in the wild, with more than a dozen dying in 2017 and 2018, most after being hit by ships or getting tangled in fishing gear. Whale watchers are excited by the calf spotting, as well as a sighting of several female right whales off the Georgia coast. "To have five out of the six first whales seen down here possibly being pregnant females, that's very hopeful," Julie Albert of the Marine Resources Council told the News-Journal.

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