The first North Atlantic right whale mother and baby duo of the season have been spotted in Cape Cod Bay five miles west of Great Island and heading into the spring, officials at the Centre for Coastal Studies have confirmed. 

The right whale mother has been identified as 31-year-old Nauset who was first sighted with her newborn calf on December 1 2024 off the coast of Georgia by an aerial survey conducted by Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute. 

“The first sighting of mother and calf pairs in Cape Cod Bay each season is always an exciting moment that brings hope for the species,” said Dr Daniel Palacios, director of the Centre’s Right Whale Ecology Programme. 

“Their presence confirms successful calving in the southeastern US during the winter months and marks a crucial stage in the calves’ early development. Given the critically endangered status of North Atlantic right whales, every birth is vital for populations recovery.”

Sightings such as these go the distance to highlight the urgent need to protect Cape Cod Bay as a “critical habitat where calves feed and nurse”. 

North Atlantic right whales are a species plighted by threats to their survival. One of the greatest threats to the species right now are ship strikes. The arrival of right whale mothers and their calves in Cape Cod Bay is therefore an encouraging event, given that their current population is estimated to be just 372 individuals.

Nauset and her calf were spotted by aerial observers approximately five miles west of Great Island, Wellfleet. North Atlantic right whales will typically return to northern feeding grounds around New England and Canada in winter and early spring after calving off the coast of the southeast US each year. 

Cape Cod Bay is “host to one of the largest feeding aggregations” of the endangered whales each year. Already this year, researchers with the Centre for Coastal Studies have seen 80 right whales in the bay, though this is the first sighting of 2025 of a mother and her calf together.

This is Nausets’ fifth known calf. Her first calf was female, Canaveral and was born in 2005, last seen – presumed dead – in 2015; a second calf died on the calving grounds in 2011; a third calf – a female called Monomoy – is currently alive and well and was also sighted in Cape Cod Bay during this survey. Her fourth calf, a male, was born in 2021.

“We were on our final track line of a busy survey day, when we spotted a pair of whales about a mile south of us,” said Ryan Schosberg, an aerial observer and right whale researcher at the Centre for Coastal Studies. 

“As we approached to document them, we knew we had to move quickly due to rising winds, which were nearing the upper limit of our survey parameters. Then to our surprise, a relatively small animal surfaced, and our initial confusion quickly turned to excitement when we realised this was our first right whale calf of the season.”

The centre has reminded kayakers, paddle-boarders, swimmers, and drone pilots that it is illegal to approach North Atlantic right whales within 500 yards without a federal research permit, noting that ship strikes are one of the greatest threats to the species.

Important efforts are, however, currently being undertaken to reduce this danger. During right whale season, for instance, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requires that vessels travel no faster than 10 knots in coastal waters and Cape Cod Bay where the whales aggregate.

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