April 23, 2026 — North Atlantic right whales, a beleaguered species of fewer than 400 individuals, gave researchers new reason to hope this winter off the coast of Georgia.
The bus-sized giants migrate to the Southeast to give birth. And for this calving season they did so in numbers unseen in nearly two decades, producing at least 23 calves that survey teams documented from planes and boats.
In all, the Georgia team saw 122 individual whales, about a third of the entire population.
“It was a really, really great season,” said Jessica Thompson, a senior wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and manager of the agency’s marine mammal program.
Thompson and her team saw right whales of all ages, from newborn to 50-something. And they saw them nearly every time weather and sea conditions allowed them to look.
“It was a really joyful and fantastic time in the calving grounds this season, because I think we only had one vessel survey where we did not work with whales the whole season,” she said.