'Holy Cow!' Aquarium scientists snap first photos of right whale birth

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

You think your mother had it rough?

One North Atlantic Right Whale traveled 1,000 miles to give birth, fasting almost the whole way. The delivery -- of a 12-foot long, 2,000 pound baby -- involved much thrashing 17 miles off the coast of Florida, and then mom had to produce enough milk to allow the calf to gain hundreds of pounds each week.

By pure luck, New England Aquarium scientists were able to photograph this tumultuous and hopeful moment for a species so threatened by extinction that every birth counts. It's the first time anyone is known to have captured images of a right whale giving birth. (To see exclusive photos of the birth, click here.)

“It was amazing to see. … I was speechless," said Aquarium researcher Monica Zani, who spotted the whale from a plane in 2005. She and other researchers waited to release the photos to the public until they could first be published in the scientific journal Aquatic Mammals, which came out this week.

“It was whoa and holy cow ... as I realized how really big this event was I witnessed,” Zani said.

Zani, Jessica Taylor, a fellow New England Aquarium researcher, and two pilots were on a daily aerial survey of whales on Jan. 1, 2005, when she saw what scientists call “funny water” -- a rippling in the dark sea that could indicate a whale was just below or at the surface. As the plane flew closer, Zani’s heart sank: There was lots of blood in the water. Her first thought was a vessel had hit the whale, causing it to badly bleed. There are only about 350 North Atlantic right whales left in the world.

But as the pilot because circling the scene, Zani saw the mother – known formally to researchers as right whale number 1632, and informally as Cat's Paw, because of a small white scar on her shoulder – positioned on her side and thrashing.

“It was all happening so fast and we were 1,000 feet up and traveling 100 miles per hour and she was making a lot of white water,'' Zani said.

Zani soon realized this was no vessel strike. The whale was moving in a rhythmic, steady way. About 3 and a half minutes after the plane arrived, Zani saw the whale surface with the calf draped limply across her back. The mother lifted herself out of the water so the calf could draw its first breath.

A few minutes later, the researchers could see the mom and calf swimming side by side. It looked like the two were in a traditional nursing position. Twenty minutes after spotting the birth, the group had to leave -- back to their mission searching for whales that might be in a vessel's path.

Right whales summer off Massachusetts and in the Bay of Fundy -- Cat's Paw was spotted there last summer, though not with her calf, which would typically leave its mother by a year old. In the winter, right whales travel to warm waters off Georgia and Florida to give birth. The leviathans are federally endangered and many have been injured or killed by ship strikes or by becoming entangled in fishing gear.

Colleagues have peppered Zani with questions since the sightings, hoping to gain some small insight into the heavily studied but still mysterious creatures: Did she see a placenta? If the placenta floated, it could have attracted sharks that could have harmed the whales. But Zani didn't see one. Were there other whales around? No, Zani saw only the two.

A few weeks after the birth, Cat's Paw and her calf were seen swimming side by side. Later, the Aquarium team pondered what to name the baby. Then it came to them: Resolution, in part to honor the New Year's Day birth, but also the species' unending will to survive.