This winter brought good news for the northern right whale, Georgia's official marine mammal and one of the earth's most endangered creatures. There were 26 births of these baby behemoths, which can measure 15 feet long and weigh up to one ton. They were born off the Georgia and north Florida coasts, the only known calving grounds for right whales. This "baby boom" represents a dramatic improvement over last year, when only one baby was seen all season. This increase was especially noteworthy as there are only about 300 of these mammals worldwide.

Scientists attribute the bumper crop of baby right whales to an increased supply of the plankton on which the mammoth mammals feed. There may be even more whale births next year because of increasing plankton levels, scientists predict.

Unfortunately, deaths greatly outnumber births of these creatures, which can grow up to 100 tons. One of the two main causes of death is collision with large ships. Several state and federal agencies have developed an early warning system to alert ships to the presence of right whales. Navy and Coast Guard crews from Savannah to Fort Pierce, Florida, are helping implement this system. Every 12 hours, the Navy issues a report to military and commercial ships showing the position of all known whales. The Georgia Conservancy has played a role in improved whale protection in Georgia.

New regulations will help protect right whales from the other great threat to their survival: entanglements with fishing gear. The National Marine Fisheries Service now require lobster and gill net fishermen to use equipment designed to break away at a certain pressure so whales do not get caught in fishing lines.