Rare sea creature — and baby — spotted off Georgia coast in a first of calving season

A 31-year-old North American right whale named Nauset has been spotted off the coast of Georgia with a new baby, becoming the first mom identified this calving season for the critically endangered species.

The baby is Nauset’s fifth calf, adding one more member to a population on the brink of extinction with fewer than 400 individuals left in the wild, according to marine experts.

Members of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute said they spotted the mom and calf during a Dec. 1 aerial survey near Sapelo Island.

Every year from mid-November to roughly mid-April, North American right whales travel to the coastal waters off the Carolinas, Georgia and north Florida to give birth to their calves, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But with fewer than 70 reproducing females left, the whales are dying from human-driven causes, such as entanglement and boat strikes, faster than they’re adding new calves to the population.

“Recent trends in calving include fewer first-time mothers, older first-time mothers, and more resting years between births,” according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. “This means that each female is producing fewer calves over her lifetime. Recruitment of new mothers into the population is expected and is essential for population growth.”

Many female North American right whales have begun giving birth every six to 10 years as opposed to the previous norm of every three years, NOAA says. Stress may be causing whales to calve less frequently.

But Nauset has largely escaped the trend, averaging about one calf every four years since 2005, according to NOAA.

Another mother, this one unidentified, was spotted with a calf off Cape Romain in South Carolina on Nov. 24 by a boater, the FWC says. Around the same time, aerial surveys located three females of reproductive age swimming off the Carolinas, researchers said.

Nauset is the name of members of an Algonquin-speaking Native American tribe from the Cape Cod area, according to Britannica. The whale takes her name from Nauset Lighthouse due to her “lighthouse-shaped callosity pattern,” Clearwater researchers said.

Marine biologists encourage boaters to report right whale sightings to 877-942-5343 or to the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF Ch. 16.