Visit our Program webpage for current information about
the North Atlantic Right Whale Program.


The Marine Resources Council's Right Whale Monitoring Program was established in 1995 to reduce human impacts to the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Citizens on the east coast of Florida report land‑based sightings of right whales to our hotline (1‑888‑97‑WHALE). This information is passed on to local ship traffic to avoid ship strikes, which account for over one‑third of documented right whale deaths in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

5th Calf Spotted!

The 5th known right whale calf of the season was spotted on Wednesday, January 25th by the Florida Fish and Wildlife aerial survey team. The new mother has been tentatively identified as right whale #3390. #3390's age is unknown and this is her first calf. To learn more about when and where she's been spotted, look her up in the right whale catalog at http://rwcatalog.neaq.org
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

First Calf of Season Missing

We're sad to report that the mother of this season's first calf was recently spotted by an aerial survey team with another adult, but not with her calf. This 29-year-old has had a total of 5 calves (including this year's). In addition to losing her 2012 calf, she also lost her previous two calves. A close eye will be kept on Half-Note (#1301) and photos will be analyzed to confirm the loss of her 2012 calf.
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First Shore-Based Sightings of the Season!


Shore-based volunteers just had two sightings in two days! That's one way to get a late season started! A sighting was reported off Crescent Beach on Monday around 3:15pm. By 4:45pm, the Marineland Right Whale Project verified a single right whale close to shore and headed south. This morning around 7:40am, a call from Susie Rhonemus put us on alert again and four other reports followed hers. Once again, the Marineland folks trekked to Daytona Beach Shores looking for the whale from land while the AirCam searched from above. After being elusive and staying under water a lot, the whale was finally verified and photographed from the AirCam. Both sightings were reported to local ship traffic in a timely fashion. Incidentally, photographs are being analyzed to determine if both sightings were of the same whale. If so, it swam almost 50 miles overnight. That's a swim speed of 3 mph, or about 2.6 knots. We typically see speeds of about 1 mph (less than 1 knot), so this whale's in a hurry! It's entirely possible that if this whale keeps moving south at this speed, it could be in Brevard County on Wednesday! The photo here is courtesy of the Marineland Right Whale Project and was taken off Daytona Beach Shores on Jan. 24th. For more information on the sighting, you can visit Marineland's blog at marinelandrightwhale.blogspot.com
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