The chapter shifts from the novel’s story to a factual note about North Atlantic right whales. It explains that the species remains critically endangered despite conservation efforts, with fewer than 370 whales left and fewer than 70 breeding females. Human-caused threats, especially vessel strikes, fishing-gear entanglements, climate change, and ocean noise, continue to endanger the whales and make recovery difficult.

The note then describes how researchers in Canada and the United States have tracked individual right whales since 1988 through a DNA databank that records photographs, drawings, and sightings. Because reproduction is low, scientists closely follow these whales to understand their survival and breeding patterns. Each whale is identified by a catalog number rather than a personal name.

The focus narrows to catalog number 1950. Her body was found off the coast of Virginia on March 30, 2024, and a necropsy concluded that her injuries were consistent with a vessel strike. Researchers know that only six weeks earlier she had been seen near Florida with a newborn calf, and after her death the calf could not be found; because the calf was so young, it likely died without her.

The chapter then looks back over 1950’s life. First seen in 1989 and estimated to be about thirty-five when she died, 1950 frequented the Bay of Fundy in the 1990s, survived three entanglements, and gave birth to six calves, five of whom are still alive. Although some right whales receive names and 1950 did not, the narrator gives her one at the end: Francesca.

A final brief section directs readers to organizations supporting right whale research and conservation, turning the chapter into both a memorial for 1950 and a call to learn more and help protect the species.