An unknown right whale calf spotted off Quebec
· BehindLines newsroom
Canadian researchers have photographed a North Atlantic right whale calf that nobody knew about. According to the Associated Press, republished by Maine Public on November 6, the discovery brings the number of calves counted for the latest birthing season to 24.
An encounter in September
According to Popular Science and the AP, the animal was spotted in September near Anticosti Island, in Quebec, by the Mingan Island Cetacean Study, a nonprofit organization on the Côte-Nord. The calf was with its mother, Silt, a female at least 38 years old listed in the catalog as number 1817. It is her sixth known calf, Popular Science specifies, noting that she is already a grandmother and great-grandmother.
The New England Aquarium, in Boston, announced the discovery. According to the AP, its scientists estimate that the youngster was born several months earlier and was not seen during the winter surveys. Popular Science reports that Silt had been briefly sighted in February in the calving grounds of the southeastern United States, which suggests the birth may have happened there, though neither the exact place nor the date is known. The founder of the Quebec organization, Richard Sears, quoted by the AP, sums it up: it shows "how big the ocean is."
One of the best seasons
According to the AP, these 24 calves make this the most productive season since 2009 and the fourth highest in the history of the surveys. Amy Warren, a scientist at the New England Aquarium, calls it an "exciting discovery" so late in the year, according to the AP.
A species that remains fragile
Both sources recall that the North Atlantic right whale remains critically endangered. The AP puts the population at about 380 individuals, including about 70 females of breeding age, in decline since 2010. Popular Science cites an estimate of about 384 whales for 2024, 2.1 percent more than in 2023, and researcher Heather Pettis, of the New England Aquarium, judged in October 2025 that a population of 384 individuals was "still incredibly low."
The main threats cited are collisions with ships and entanglement in fishing gear; the AP adds ocean warming.
What this changes
One more calf does not change the species' trajectory on its own, but it improves the season's tally and shows that some individuals escape monitoring. The final count for this cohort will depend on further sightings.