WTG No. 8 - All about baby whales!

Welcome to Whale Tales and Glitter Issue #8. Are you reading this on the web or did you get it as a forward? If you Subscribe https://www.whaletalesandglitter.com/ you’ll get all the whale-y goodness sent right to your inbox. If you’d like to support Whale Tales and Glitter there’s now a ko-fi page https://ko-fi.com/katepennington

^{ID: Two long, slender, blue whales (light gray-blue in color), a mother and her calf, swim from right to left through deep blue water. Photo: David Serradell in the Sea of Cortez in Baja California Mexico.}

It’s baby whale season in many parts of the world, and what better way to start off a new year than with pictures and facts about some of the largest babies in the world.

Whales, along with seals, sea lions, sea otters, walrus, and polar bears are marine mammals who have hair (hard to see, but it’s there), breathe air, give birth to live young, and nourish their calves with milk. Unlike most of the rest of us, they do all of that while living full time in water. So how do they do it?

Gestation

^{ID: A light gray Humpback whale swims in vibrant blue water. Her abdomen is noticeably distended, and presumed to hold a soon to be born calf. Photo: a screenshot from a video taken off the North Shore of Oahu on 1/2/26 by GE Keoni / Bob Marlin Charters on Youtube.}

As with most mammalian babies, a whale calf, be it a large Blue whale or a small Harbor porpoise, needs time to grow inside mom’s womb. From conception to birth, gestation varies by species with Bottlenose dolphin’s. Blues and Humpbacks on the shorter end at 11 to 12 months. Belugas need around 15 months and Killer whales almost 17 months. The longest gestation period belongs to the thick bodied, large headed, Bowhead whales who can take up to 23 months.

Birth

^{ID A Humpback whale with a smooth, dark body, small dorsal at mid-back, and large, gray tail fluke, rests in vibrant blue water. Her body is angled toward the surface, one, mostly white, pectoral fin visible at her side. Just below her belly, a small tail fluke, with white patches, emerges from her (unseen) genital slit. Photo: a screenshot from a National Geographic video of Humpback whales in Hawaii.}

Where terrestrial mammals are born head first, baby whales are born tail first. This leaves the head for last, limiting the amount of time the calf is without air post birth. For species who travel solo, like Humpbacks and Gray whales, pregnancy and birth is usually managed alone. So once the calf is free of her body, mom will nudge the calf upward up toward the surface for their first breath of air. In communal whale pods such as with Sperm, Beluga, Killer whales, and most dolphins, birth happens among family. In these groups the calf is born into an established family unit and the mom has the support of the pod while she’s laboring. We’ve seen recently that in some cases, pod members will push the calf to the surface and even help them stay there if they need extra time to get acclimated to life outside the womb.

Once a calf gets to the surface they will first let out a breath , clearing their lungs of any fluids left from gestation. When all goes well, the calf’s lungs will fill with fresh air. As the calf grows, their lungs will be able to hold greater capacity until, eventually they can make dives as deep as their mother. Until then, they spend a lot of time at the surface, alone if they’re a blue, gray or humpback whale, and with their pod if they are a dolphin or Sperm whale.

Observations of whale births in the wild can be hard to come by, but with improvements in digital and drone photography, the rise of whale watching and eco-tourism, and more researchers out in general, we’ve been graced with some amazing images and data about some species birth processes.

^{ID: A slightly blurry image of a group of Sperm whales supporting a newborn calf. All the whales are gray and surrounded by churned up white caps. They press close to each other and several blunt headed adults support the newborn on the bodies where it lies across their backs. Photo: a screenshot from video by researchers at Project CETI.}

^{ID: A mother Humpback whale, rises, rostrum up, toward the surface of the water. Her dark gray body is dappled with patterns of light. Her left pectoral fin is stretched out at her side as she nudges her new born calf to the surface. The calf’s light gray body appears to be as long as her upper body, pale gray with white edging on its tail flukes and pectoral fin. Photo: a screenshot, from the same National Geographic video of Humpback whales in Hawaii shared above.}

_{ID: Multiple Orca move through choppy gray-green water. They have smooth black bodies and dorsal fins and white eye patches. They are holding a new born Orca calf at the surface. The baby’s “white” eye patch is tinted orange, fetal folds show on its back and its dorsal fin is completely dropped flat over its back. Photo: taken by Krisztina Balotay, Orca Channel, on 11/2/2025 in Norwegian waters. More photos and info here. TW for blood in the water.}

Nursing

^{ID: A Sperm whale mother and calf, both smooth gray, swim through light blue water. The calf is below mom, their rostrum pressed to her belly, at the mammary slit, to nurse. Photo: from a video about CETI’s work with Sperm whales.} 

Whale calves may start out large, but they also begin life at a disadvantage as they have almost non of the blubber their mom has to keep them warm. As a mammal, whales are warm blooded and have a body temperature similar to humans, ranging between 97 and 100. But water pulls heat from our bodies faster than the air does, the insulation of blubber slows this process down, making it possible for whales to thrive in water. To put on that blubber layer, calves need to eat but living in water brings complications here as well. The evolutionary work-around for whales is that their milk is very very thick, similar to very soft cream cheese. This is helpful since if you were to pour milk into the ocean it would float away would leaving a calf with nothing useful to drink. To feed a growing calf, mother whale’s produce a milk that is 35% to 50% fat and high protein, all of which fuels whale calf’s extremely fast growth rate. In the case of Blue whales, the calf can take in over 150 liters of milk per day, allowing them to gain over 200 pounds of mainly thick blubber, per day. Female whales have also mammary slits on their bellies, instead of breasts which would cause drag as they swim. When the calf nudges the mammary slit, the pressure triggers the mother’s body to eject her thick milk into the water for the calf to suck into their mouths.

Growth

^{ID: A dark gray Humpback whale and her light gray, newly born calf, swim through vibrant blue water. The calf is directly above mom, taking a breath of air. They’re almost half the length of mom. Photo: a screenshot from a video taken early January 2026 by GE Keoni /Bob Marlin Charters on TikTok.}

Whale calves can be up to half the size of their mom at birth and they only get bigger from there. For the first year of most calves lives they will travel with mom, nursing, growing, eating some more, and learning how to be a whale. After the first year, whales who are primarily solitary travelers like the Humpback and Blue whales, will part ways. Mom and child will travel the same routes and use the same feeding and breeding grounds. The calf will be on their own, as prepared as mom could make them.

Whales who live in pods, like Orca, Sperm whales, and most dolphins, travel in groups of between five, fifteen, or more family members. The communal nature of their lives means that family members stay together for years, either in mixed sex groups or sex defined groups with mothers and calves in one, juvenile and adult males in another. In these groups calves generally stay with their mothers and aunties for many years. It’s during this time that Orcas pass on the culture of their community along with their specialized hunting styles. Female Orcas will stay with their mother’s pod for several years before branching off to form their own pod. Even then, mom and daughters will meet up to hunt and socialize. Sperm whale female will remain with their birth pod for most of their lives. In both types of pod structures, the male calves will all have a limited period of time, from a couple of years to a decade, before they are deemed too old, and male, to stay with the maternal group. At that point, depending on the species, they will join up with a couple of other males or large bachelor ponds.

Baby whales thrive in their environment with the care of their mothers and the adaptations which help them survive in a world of water and air. They also have to face natural predators, using the skills learned from their mothers and/or family group. What’s harder for all of them are the changes to water temperature, noise levels, and shipping traffic that we have brought into their lives. The more we can adjust our impacts, the more calves, and mothers, will survive to keep their populations growing and thriving.

Spotlight: Rear Admiral Evelyn J. Fields (ret.)

^{ID: A Black woman in a formal dress, dark blue uniform jacket with white collared blouse. She is smiling at the camera. Her jacket has bands of gold on each sleeve. There is a name tag on the left side of her jacket and rows of ribbon bars on her right side. She wears a white and black woman’s naval cap with gold braid. Behind her two official flags. Photo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration}

Rear Admiral Evelyn Fields’ name has come up many times when researching Black women in Marine Science. I don’t immediately think of military officers also being scientists, but many of them are, if not directly, then in support positions that make the work possible. Mapping the sea floor, as Field did, is most often done on ships through Hydrographic surveys - bouncing signals from the ship down to the bottom of the ocean over and over again to “see” the ground under the water. Once all that data is collected, people are needed to collate and sift through the information to translate the numbers into lines on maps. While much of that work is sorted by computers these days, people continue to be a part of the process, and as a Cartographer and then an Officer and Commander, Fields was part of gathering that data.
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1949, Fields is the oldest of five children. They were raised by their mother, a Teacher, and father, a civilian employee of the Norfolk, VA Naval Shipyard. She and her siblings all graduated from college. Her brothers all went into the Army and are also retired, while her sister attended divinity school and became a teacher.

Fields showed an early aptitude for Math and while in the Girl Scouts she discovered Maps. From there she got a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Norfolk State University, a Historically Black University in Norfolk, VA. And in 1972 she took a job as a cartographer with NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration* [*NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (of the United States) is directly involved in learning about, planning for, and managing all things weather, ocean and coast related for the United States and, incoordination with other nations, cares for the general well being of our Climate and all its parts. Originally founded in In 1807 as the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the organization evolved over the years, adding branches, changing names until becoming NOAA in 1970. Their mission is [t]o understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean, and coasts,
to share that knowledge and information with others, and to conserve and manage
coastal and marine ecosystems and resources, just as they were expanding their charting program and incorporate computers into their work. A year later NOAA began recruiting women into their Commissioned Officer Corps. Looking for her next challenge, Fields applied and in 1973 became the first African American woman to join the NOAA Corps.

Throughout her career, Fields participated in hydrographic survey operations, fisheries investigations and oceanographic research. She served as the operations officer of the NOAA Ships Mt. Mitchell and Peirce, and as executive officer on Rainier. Through these postings she was able to work in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and Alaskan waters. In 1989, Fields was given command of NOAAS McArthur, making her the first female commander of a federal ship.

During her years of service, Fields helped direct “the development of roster and vector charts, doubling of chart production, reduction of chart update production time from 47 to just four weeks … and increase in data acquisition capabilities on board NOAA hydrogrpahic survey ships.” - U.S. Commerce Secretary William M. Daley.

In 1999 she became the first woman and first African American to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps, and be promoted to Rear Admiral.

RADM Fields retired in 2002 and is, I hope, living the next phase of the private, fulfilling life, she created for herself.

Links

Video: Evelyn Fields: A trailblazer

Article: Rear Adm. Evelyn Fields: Breaking Ground (Again), starting at page 4.

The Naming of Whales
I’ve been thinking about the words we use to name whales - not just the nicknames for individual whales, but the names of species as used by communities around the world. There are a lot of different names, some still being reclaimed by their speakers, so I know it’s a long term project. For now, I’m starting it off with the scientific name for whales: Cetacean which comes from the Latin Cetus, and was derived from the ancient Greek ketos meaning large fish or sea monster.

^{ID: Detail of a black and tan painted vase. The central image is of a nude man in motion. He is facing a long necked creature with thin horns and pointed nose. There are spikes down its neck and rows of white dots over its body. It has a coiling tail that ends in pale fronds, and two thin arms with fronds training from the undersides. From the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, Italy}

And Glitter: Good Whale News

^{ID: A mother and calf Right whale swim in dark green water, angled to the lower left corner of the image. They are both dark gray with stubby rostrums. Mom’s nose and head is covered with white, raised patches of skin. Photo: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, taken under NOAA permit #26919 Funded by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.}

It’s calving season for the North Atlantic Right whales! And as of January 22, 2026 we have 21 new calves! This is the highest number since 2011, and the season isn’t over yet.

Right whales, Eubalaena glacialis, are filter feeding baleen whales with thick, barrel, shaped bodies that are mostly black with some white patches on their heads. Their heads make up about 1/3 of their total length and hold hundreds of 8 ft long, baleen plates which they use to filter their food.

^{ID: An illustration of a thick bodied whale in profile. Their body is smooth and black except for raised white spots around its mount, on its rostrum, and over its eye. There is a patch of white on their belly. They have short, paddle-like pectoral fin(s), and small, relative to body size, tail flukes. Drawing by Uko Gorter}

These calves are members of the critically endangered North Atlantic Right whale population, one of three populations of Right whales in the world. This population feeds in the cold, nutrient rich waters off of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, as well as parts of north eastern Canada from Spring through later fall. When winter arrives, pregnant females, and some males, migrate south to the warm, shallow, waters stretching from Cape Fear in North Caroline down to Cape Canaveral in Florida.

See you next issue with more whale-y goodness!

Kate