'Beginning of the end?' No new babies for endangered whales
Posted March 26, 2018 7:00 am
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - The winter calving season for critically endangered right whales is ending without a single newborn being spotted off the southeast U.S. coast. That is something that hasn't happened in 30 years.
Barb Zoodsma oversees the region's right whale recovery program for the National Marine Fisheries Service. She says this "could be the beginning of the end."
Researchers have been looking since December for newborn right whales off the coasts of Georgia and Florida. That's where pregnant whales typically give birth each winter. Survey flights wrap up when the month ends Saturday.
There are an estimated 450 right whales alive. Last year, 17 washed up dead in the U.S. and Canada.
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