Although the numbers this year don't look too good initially, researchers are still holding out for positive numbers. A string of storms and bad weather days made it impossible to put the plane in the air for the aerial surveys. Fewer days in the air translated into fewer sightings. Also, even on the days the plane got airborne, the sea states were often quite bad for whale spotting. A sea state of 3 or more, which was often the case, results in whitecaps.
Whitecaps disguise the splashes whales make when they break the surface.
So, except for the whales the observers flew directly over, many of the whales were probably camouflaged by the choppy seas. Researchers are hoping to see many more mother-calf pairs in northern waters this spring and summer. Here too, bad weather has prevented many boat and aerial surveys. Whales seem to be feeding on abundant zooplankton in the waters here. Right whales are mammals, and mammals don't always do what we assume they are going to do.