# @cmaquarium on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DUyZT24mnIU
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/56335239-cmaquarium-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/b0fbe3b2f0.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-02-15T17:45:46.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Clearwater Marine Aquarium (@cmaquarium) — https://gondola.cc/cmaquarium

## Caption

This World Whale Day, we share bittersweet news as we continue to celebrate an extraordinary calving season with 22 new North Atlantic right whale calves, bringing hope for the critically endangered species, while we are also saddened to share the recent report of a dead right whale that was found on a barrier island off Virginia's eastern shore last week. 

Biologists from nature_org discovered the carcass on Feb. 10, and a Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute aerial survey team was able to locate and photograph it on the remote beach. The newenglandaquarium identified the whale as a 3-year-old female. According to noaafisheries, this death marks the 43rd mortality in the ongoing Unusual Mortality Event (UME) impacting North Atlantic right whales, which have an estimated population of fewer than 400 whales left in the wild and only about 70 reproductive females. 

Photos of new calves and gatherings of endangered North Atlantic right whales bring hope for the future, but the endangered whales continue to face many threats from entanglements, vessel strikes and other human impacts. Data collected by our researchers and partner organizations will help find ways to protect the remaining North Atlantic right whales, and you can help ensure their survival by supporting these conservation efforts and the organizations working together to save the whales. 🐋💙

Photo 1 (dead right whale in Virginia) Credit: Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute, taken under NOAA permit #24359. Funded by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
Photo  2 (right whale Catalog #3520 Millipede and calf) credit: Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute, taken under NOAA permit #26919. Funded by Georgia DNR and NOAA Fisheries.
Photo 3 (a group of 4 right whales off the coast of Georgia) credit: Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute, taken under NOAA permit #26919. Funded by Georgia DNR and NOAA Fisheries.
Photo 4 (right whale next to heart-shaped water formation) credit: Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute, taken under NOAA permit 26919.

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## Tags

24359, 26919, 3520

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