After nearly two decades, the baby whale came back—as a mother, with a baby of its own. Julie Albert, director of the Right Whale Sighting Network at Blue World Research Institute, a nonprofit, first laid eyes on the North Atlantic right whale known as Callosity Back in 2007 when it was still just a calf, swimming off the coast of Florida.
Immediately, she says, the whale stood out. Like other North Atlantic right whales, it had callosities—patches of thick, white, rough tissue on its skin. But unlike any other known right whale, this one had those markings on its back.
“That’s how she got her name,” says Albert. “She’s definitely an