North Atlantic right whale calving season brings most births in 17 years

A North Atlantic right whale named Magic and her 2026 calf swimming east of Florida. (Courtesy of the New England Aquarium)

The 2026 North Atlantic right whale calving season has produced the highest number of births since 2009.

The calving season runs from mid-November to mid-April, and this year it’s ending with 23 mother-calf pairs.

“It’s positive news for the critically endangered species with an estimated population of about 380,” reads a news release from New England Aquarium, a non-profit research organization based in Boston.

A healthy right whale can give birth every three to four years, but scientists at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium say they’ve noticed 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,” says Amy Warren, scientific program officer at the Anderson Cabot Center.

Right whales are vulnerable to extinction, and have been experiencing an “unusual mortality event,” according to the aquarium.

The main cause of death and serious injury for the whales is from entanglements in traps or vessel strikes.

Together with a network of individuals and research groups along the eastern seaboard, scientists in the Anderson Cabot Centre curate the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalogue.

The extensive photo-identification database allows them to track right whales’ life stories including births, injuries, migration patterns, and age to create detailed histories of each individual whale.

They use this information to list mom and calf pairings and track them through calving seasons. They say the right whales have been sighted in Massachusetts and are heading north.

Sightings and acoustic detections are logged on an online WhaleMap accessible to the public to get an approximate location of the whales. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) also has a Whale Insight online map.