October 7, 2019 — North Atlantic right whales, or at least a few members of the population, are regular visitors to the Southeast coast. While the bus-sized marine mammals spend much of their time on feeding grounds near New England and the Canadian Maritimes, some female whales come to the area that stretches from Florida to the Cape Fear area during calving season.
Those births are vitally important to a species with only 400 individuals. Scientists monitor the 80 or 90 potential mothers, and many of the other whales, to better understand and protect them. Many of them have names, not just numbers.
Punctuation, for example, was a 38-year-old female named for the comma- and dash-shaped scars on her head. She’s given birth off the Southeast coast eight times since 1986 and was last seen here in February 2018. Wolverine was born off the coast of Florida in 2010 and was easily identifiable because of a unique belly pattern.