Less than a week into the North Atlantic right whale calving season, two newborn whales have been spotted, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources reports.
The first calf seen was born to a mother whale with the appropriately celebratory name of Champagne. The pair was spotted by an aerial survey team the day after Thanksgiving off Ocean Isle Beach, N.C. Champagne, named for the markings on her head that look like bubbles, is 17 and this her second known calf. The first was Wall-E, born in 2021.
The second mother/calf pair of the season was spotted about 4 nautical miles east of the St. Marys River entrance at the Florida/Georgia border on Dec. 3 by an aerial survey team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute. The mother, nicknamed Millipede, is 21 years old and this is her third calf. She was named for a long superficial series of prop cuts, from a vessel strike, that look like the many legs of a millipede along her right side.
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