When researchers photographed a North Atlantic right whale swimming with a calf off Quebec in September, the mother was a familiar face. Her name is Silt, she is at least 38 years old, and scientists know her family well enough to have recorded the birth of her first great-grandchild earlier this year. The calf at her side, however, was a surprise.
Silt had last been seen in February in the calving grounds off the south-eastern United States. Months of surveys by boat and plane followed without another sighting. Then, on 25 September, a team from the Mingan Island Cetacean Study photographed the pair near Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence. After comparing the photographs with earlier sightings, scientists at the New England Aquarium concluded that this was Silt’s sixth known calf, probably born last winter.
That brings the season’s tally to 24 calves, the highest since 2009. For a critically endangered species with an estimated 380 individuals left, it is welcome news.
Silt’s own family history tells us something about the dangers these young whales face. She carries scars on her head and tail from encounters with fishing gear and has survived at least five entanglements. Her eldest calf died after a vessel struck it in 2005. Another, named Division, died earlier this year after becoming entangled in commercial fishing gear. Giving Silt’s newest calf a chance to raise a family of its own, means creating safer waters for it to live in.
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