Breaking news: Critically endangered North Atlantic right whale moms gave birth to 23 new calves this season, the most since 2009. With only 374 right whales alive before these births, this represents a wondrous 6.4 percent boost.

Pictured here are Mirror and her first calf, spotted in Florida on March 14. Mirror is 10 years old. Among experienced moms, researchers are delighted to see intervals between births shorten by a few years, meaning moms are receiving the nutrition they need and are less stressed by environmental factors like fishing gear entanglements and ship strikes, their greatest threats.

“Thirteen of these returning moms last had calves in the 2021 or 2022 seasons, marking a shorter interval between births than the recent average of 7 to 10 years. This is closer to the normal or healthy interval of 3 to 4 years,” a NOAA news release reported April 30.

🙌🏼🐳 Go, moms, go!

Photo credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, taken under NOAA permit #26919. Aerial survey funded by the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and NOAA Fisheries.

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