After almost two decades, the baby whale returned – as a mother with her own child. Julie Albert, director of the Right Whale Sighting Network at the nonprofit Blue World Research Institute, first spotted the North Atlantic right whale known as Callosity in 2007, when it was still a calf, swimming off the coast of Florida.
He says the whale stood out immediately. Like other North Atlantic right whales, it had calluses – patches of stout, white, abrasive tissue on its skin. But unlike other known right whales, this one had these markings on its back.
“That’s how she got her name,” says Albert. “He’s definitely an individual.” Then on Recent Year’s Eve 2025, Callosity Back returned to Florida. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission received a call reporting that an unidentified whale and its calf had been spotted off the state’s east-central coast. Albert describes how she and her friends ran to the pool deck behind a nearby beach hotel to get a better view and soon realized it was Callosity Back.
“I waited 19 years to see this mother,” Albert says. Whale watchers – sometimes joined by hotel guests – watched the mother and calf pair swim for hours until darkness finally fell.
The Callosity Back calf is just one of them 21 young right whales documented at the time of writing during the current calving season, which runs from mid-November to mid-April. It’s unusual for so many of these whales to be born so early in one season. Scientists have counted only 11 last year e.g.
As of 2024, there are only 384 total North Atlantic right whales left in the wild. estimates published last October. Species used to number in many thousandsbefore commercial whaling almost wiped out the animals in the 18th and 19th centuries. North Atlantic right whales never recovered and are now on the verge of extinction.
People who monitor and protect right whales and know the detailed history of these animals will tell you that a herd of calves, while wonderful in itself, is by no means a guarantee of the long-term survival of the species. But right whales are still worth fighting for, conservationists say, because their diminutive population could grow again if given the opportunity.
Callosity Back was born a survivor. Her mother is one of only two North Atlantic right whales ever documented to have given birth in chilly Northeastern waters, far from their usual calving grounds off the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. (Biscuit calves are born without fat, which means exposure to chilly water in the first weeks of life can kill them.)
Right now, researchers are constantly on the lookout for newborn right whalesand I was surprised by 21 novel arrivals. “In the 1980s and 1990s, the number went up to 18, maybe a few times, just to give it some context,” says Phil Hamilton, senior scientist at the Recent England Aquarium. “I hope that number can increase.”