April 18, 2023 — There are an estimated 350 North Atlantic right whales in existence. Most, if not all, will pass along the Massachusetts coast between now and late spring.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says, “Every winter, many right whales migrate more than 1,000 miles. The right whales travel from their feeding grounds off Canada and New England to the warm, shallow coastal waters of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida’s east coast.”
“These southern waters are the only known place where right whales give birth and nurse their young,” according to NOAA.
In the spring, the right whales begin the slow migration north to their feeding and mating grounds in the Gulf of Maine and the eastern Canadian Atlantic.