"They’ll actually stay in the Bay of Fundy into October,” says Tony Lacasse.
Lacasse is spokesperson for the New England Aquarium whose researchers have been tracking and studying the right whale for the past 30 years.
They use both boats and aerial surveillance to keep tabs on the whales, and assign a name to each and every one of them.
“Right whales have a unique pattern on the top of their head,” says Lacasse, “and the names tend to stem from what that pattern reminds us of. We have a whale with a pattern that looks like a guitar. His name is Van Halen.”
Lacasse says this current baby boom is unprecedented: the entire right whale population numbers less than 400 and is considered the most endangered whale in world, in part because of low reproductive rates.
“One year there were eleven right whale calves in the bay, and that was considered pretty amazing” says Dianne Theriault of Petit Passage Whale Watch.
In 2000, just a single calf was born.
Theriault, like other County tourism operators, is delighted to hear of the right whale baby boom. Pundits are already predicting a soft year for tourism, but with anatural attraction that is not occurring anywhere else on the planet, Bay of Fundy tourism operators may just be able to buck the trend.
Right whale births at record levels
Right whale births at record levels
A unique Digby County attraction - courtesy of Mother Nature
When the right whales return to northern waters in early July, there will be 39 calves swimming at their mothers’ sides. Digby County residents—and visitors—will have a front row seat on this remarkable event: right whales consider the Bay of Fundy their ‘nursery’ and they will settle into local waters for the rest of the summer.
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