Saving Seafood

Highly endangered right whales see a baby boom, but threats still loom

May 22, 2026 — A jump from 11 North Atlantic right whale births in 2024-25 season to 23 for this season might sound like a nice little bump.

But when the entire population of the North Atlantic right whale can fit in the main stage at Wilmington’s Thalian Hall, you know overall numbers are still incredibly low.

Still, researchers and environmentalists say this season’s calving numbers for the highly endangered marine mammal are a positive sign − especially after some subpar years since the start of the 2010s.

The 2025-26 season represented the highest number of births since 2009, and the fourth highest on record.

Read the full article at Star News Online

Right whale calving season brings ‘cautiously optimistic’ hope

May 14, 2026 — North Atlantic right whales, which give birth off the coast of Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida each winter, had their most successful calving season in more than 15 years. There are only about 380 right whales still alive, so every new baby is considered critical to keeping the species from extinction.

Scientists spotted 23 right whale calves swimming with their moms this past calving season, which runs from November to April. It’s the most new calves since 2009. The number has researchers “cautiously optimistic,” said Amy Warren, scientific program officer at the New England Aquarium. But she said calving is only part of the whales’ story.

“Having 23 calves is excellent, but we hope that all of these 23 calves can make it through the first year and then into adulthood,” she said.

It’s not uncommon for calves and adult whales alike to be killed, often by boat strikes or entanglements in fishing gear.

Read the full article at Savannah Now

Conservationists ask to defend US right whale speed rule in court

May 14, 2026 — A group of conservation organizations have filed a request to defend vessel speed limits designed to protect North Atlantic right whales from a legal challenge, questioning U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration’s willingness to fully defend the regulation in court.

“With lawmakers and the Trump administration trying to delay right whale safeguards for another decade, preserving the Vessel Speed Rule is more important than ever,” Conservation Law Foundation Senior Counsel Erica Fuller said in a release. “This rule is the only one that protects the few remaining right whales from vessel strikes. Weakening it would be a reckless abandonment of our responsibility to protect endangered marine life and the health of our oceans for generations to come.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Numbers of endangered Right Whale calves rebound, but threats remain

May 8, 2026 — A new count shows increased numbers of mother-calf pairs in the Atlantic, but their total numbers are still less than 400.

The number of one of the planet’s most endangered whales may be rebounding.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium researchers counted 23 Right Whale calves during their annual survey. That’s up from 11 mother-calf pairs counted last year.

The whales live in the Atlantic from Florida northward to North Carolina, although their range is expanding north as the oceans heat up. They’re susceptible to ship strikes, and fewer than four hundred are known to remain.

Melanie White directs the North Atlantic Right Whale conservation project with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

“This is a critically endangered species, and so every individual is vitally important to the population,” she said. “And the number is well above where it was in previous years, actually well over a decade, have we gotten a chance to see mother calf pairs so high.”

White said there’s no clear reason for the increase, other than their food supply seems to be stable and fewer boat strikes were recorded.

“There’s a lot of work up and down the entire East Coast trying to protect these whales, not only on the calving grounds, but also on the feeding grounds in the northern portion of the North Atlantic Ocean, where they’re going for their feeding seasons,” she said. “So these animals need to be able to find food and have a good supply of food so they can not only become pregnant, but bring that calf to term.”

Read the full article at WUSF

Endangered whale protections may be delayed to 2035 under Trump-backed plan

May 5, 2026 — For roughly 380 right whales left in the North Atlantic, which can die after getting tangled in fishing ropes or hit by ships, the Trump administration said this month it wants to delay new protections by almost a decade in favor of commercial fishing interests.

The sleek black whales, which weigh as much as a midsized bulldozer, are critically endangered and their numbers have declined sharply in recent decades. Environmental groups say reducing deaths and injuries caused by people is essential to the species’ recovery.

The whales give birth off Florida and Georgia before making a long migration north to feed off New England and Canada. Protected areas of ocean aid them on their journey, but scientists have said they have strayed from those zones in recent years in search of food as the oceans have warmed.

A proposal by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine, would push back new federal protections for right whales to 2035, and allow time to craft regulations that are less burdensome to the fishing industry. The White House released a memo Friday saying it “strongly supports” the plan and that President Donald Trump’s senior advisors would recommend he sign it into law if it passes Congress.

Read the full article at the Associates Press

Trump Administration says it supports Rep. Golden’s proposal to delay right whale regulation

May 5, 2026 — The Trump Administration said it supports a proposal by Democratic Maine Congressman Jared Golden to push back new federal protections for North Atlantic Right Whales to 2035.

A moratorium on new federal rules around right whales is already in place until 2028 due to concerns from lobsterman who say certain regulations for the endangered species would cripple the fishing industry.

A Monday memo from the President said Golden’s bill would also extend the requirements for the National Marine Fisheries Service to promote the innovation and adoption of gear technologies in the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries.

“The need to protect Maine’s iconic lobster industry knows no party. I’m grateful for the President’s support for Maine’s lobstermen and hopeful that my colleagues in the House will join me in quickly passing this bill into law,” Golden said in a statement.

The North Atlantic Right Whale population currently sits at around 380 individuals, according to the New England Aquarium.

Read the full article at nhpr

Bill to delay right whale regulations gains support from Trump and Maine fishermen

May 4, 2026 — A bill proposed by Democratic U.S. Representative Jared Golden is gaining support from President Donald Trump and some in Maine’s fishing industry.

The legislation, known as H.R. 8509, would extend a moratorium on fishing regulations aimed at protecting the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. Those rules are currently set to take effect in 2028, but the bill would push that timeline back to 2035 if approved.

Lobstermen with the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association said the data used to create those regulations is inaccurate. They argued the rules could lead to unnecessarily strict limits on where they can fish and how they operate.

“Give fishermen and the state of Maine DMR time to see where the whales actually are and give a chance for us to see the impact the seasonal closures and the changes we’ve already made to our gear have made.”

Joyce said some of the proposed regulations could include restricting access to certain waters and requiring the use of “ropeless” lobster gear. That type of gear removes the vertical rope connecting traps to buoys—a line that can entangle whales.

But Joyce and other fishermen believe that the solution is unsafe and costly.

Read the full article at News Center Maine

Right whale births reported highest since 2009

April 29, 2026 — Whale researchers report endangered North Atlantic right whales have completed their most successful calving season since 2009, with 23 mother-calf pairs to help rebuild a population estimated at only about 380 animals.

The annual calving season off the southeastern United States, from the Carolinas to Georgia and Florida, runs from mid-November until mid-April and is closely monitored by aerial survey teams.

Scientists with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium track the season closely. In an April 29 statement they reported there were shorter intervals between calving for the majority of the adult female whales.

“While a healthy right whale can give birth every three to four years, we had been seeing nearly 10 years between calves for some females. Many of this year’s moms have had shorter intervals—18 of them previously gave birth within the last six years—giving us hope that they may be healthier and can help grow the population faster,” said Amy Warren, scientific program officer for the Anderson Cabot Center.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Right whale calving season yields 23 babies

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.

Read the full article at GPB

MAINE: Maine senators raise red flags on ropeless gear mandate

April 10, 2026 — Maine’s two U.S. senators are pushing back on federal efforts to make ropeless gear the centerpiece of North Atlantic right whale conservation, warning that forcing an unproven technology on the lobster fleet could devastate the fishery.

In a letter to Eugenio Piñero Soler, assistant administrator for fisheries at the National Marine Fisheries Service, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, urged the agency to take lobstermen’s concerns seriously and pursue flexible alternatives before pursuing any new rulemaking.

“A single, uniform solution, particularly one that mandates technology that is not yet proven at scale, is not the right path forward for this fishery or for the conservation goals we share,” the senators wrote.

The letter followed the Maine Fishermen’s Forum in early March, where Soler heard directly from lobstermen about the practical barriers to ropeless fishing. The senators echoed what they heard on the ground: small vessels don’t have the capital, deck space, crew, or familiarity with high-tech systems to absorb a forced transition. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has estimated that transition costs alone would run at least $45 million industry-wide.

Read the full article at National Fisherman