In case you haven’t noticed, North Atlantic right whales have been making headlines.
The latest all centered on two days.
Right whale No. 5217 entangled in commercial fishing gear Dec 3 (Florida FWC/NOAA permit 24359)
First there was the team effort to partially disentangle a juvenile male whale trailing hundreds of feet of commercial fishing rope. This happened Dec. 3 and 4 off the Georgia coast.
For insights into that work and the partners involved, check out NOAA’s web account and this deep dive by The Current.
DNR and Florida FWC close in to cut fishing rope off whale No. 5217 on Dec 4. (Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute/NOAA permit 24359)
Minutes before the entangled whale nicknamed Division was discovered, the DNR Wildlife Resources Division’s marine mammal team was checking this winter’s second reported calf. Spotted just off the mouth of the St. Marys River by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s aerial survey team, the calf was shadowing its mom Millipede, officially right whale catalog No. 3520. This was the 21-year-old whale’s third calf.
Callosity Back (No. 3760) and calf — the season’s third calf — about 25 nautical miles off DeBordieu Beach, S.C., on Dec. 4 (Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute/NOAA permit 26919)
The next day, Dec. 4, a Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute survey flight documented the third calf of the season about 25 miles off DeBordieu Beach, S.C.
What made the news even better is that the calf’s mother was Callosity Back (No. 3760).
Why better? For one, it was Callosity Back’s first documented calf. Growing the number of moms is critical to growing the population of North Atlantic right whales, one of the world’s most endangered large whales.
Second, Callosity Back had been disentangled from a monofilament gillnet in 2011 off St. Simons Island by DNR senior biologist Mark Dodd and former biologist Clay George, who has since become coordinator of NOAA’s Southeast Large Whale Program.
Freed when she was 4 years old, Callosity Back — now 19 — is, well, back … and providing more hope for her species.
DNR staff cut fishing net entangled in the mouth of right whale Callosity Back (No. 3760) in 2011 off St. Simons Island. (DNR/NOAA permit 932-1905)
Two final thoughts:
- As NOAA has pointed out, it’s important to recognize that disentangling whales from commercial fishing gear is not a long-term solution. The key is preventing and minimizing entanglements.
- So far this winter, 10 adult females have been seen on right whale calving grounds off Georgia, South Carolina and northeast Florida. Three have calved. Stay tuned.
Update: The 4-year-old male right whale known as No. 5217 (Division) was found floating dead off North Carolina in January 2026. After the rescue attempt Dec. 3-4 cut away some commercial fishing rope, Division swam to New England and then returned south. Monitoring showed the whale’s condition declining even as bad weather and distance from shore stymied efforts to remove the remaining gear.