In a continued winter of hopeful news, a fifth North Atlantic right whale calf was confirmed this week off Sebastian Inlet and whale sightings were reported Friday off Ormond-by-the-Sea and Melbourne Beach.

"We’re just keeping our fingers crossed that we haave a healthy season here," said Jim Hain, senior scientist and program coordinator for the Marineland Right Whale Project.

Whale No. 2503, seen off Daytona Beach Shores on Tuesday, was spotted again about noon on Friday off Ormond Beach, said Hain, as he and Marineland volunteers watched the whale and her calf off the beach near Highbridge Road. "We've been tracking her as she very gradually moves north."

On the same day she and her calf were thrilling residents and visitors off Daytona Beach Shores, a park ranger at Sebastian Inlet State Park, Ed Perry, managed to get photos of a new mother and her calf, marking the fifth calf documented this season. That whale, Catalog No. 3717 is "at least 8 years old and this is her first known calf," said Katie Jackson, a wildlife biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The critically endangered whales migrate to this region in the winter from the waters off Maine and Nova Scotia to give birth, but the number of calves has plummeted in recent years prompting fears about the future of the right whale. Last year no calves were seen.

"It’s certainly encouraging that we’re up to five calves at this point," said Clay George, a wildlife biologist on the Georgia Department of Natural Resources right whale team. "However, for the population to resume growing, they need to be having about 20 calves."

Biologists estimate the right whale population at about 411. Over the past two years, there have been three times more deaths than births, thanks to entanglements in fishing gear and other human-related causes. There hasn't been a season with 20 calves since 2013.

Three mother-calf teams were seen this week, including the one off the Brevard coast on Tuesday and again on Friday off Melbourne Beach. The third mother-calf pair was seen Tuesday about five miles east of Amelia Island. Researchers think the smooth waters this week helped volunteers and researchers spot the whales.

Researchers have been heartened by the new calves, including biologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries division, who were out for a few weeks early in the season because of the federal shutdown.

"We are really excited about this recent siting of a right whale mom-calf pair," stated Barb Zoodsma, the right whale recovery program coordinator for NOAA Fisheries in the southeast. "After not seeing any calves last year, we are really encouraged."

[READ: Rare right whale calf seen off Daytona Beach Shores]

On Friday afternoon, the whale research team with Florida's wildlife commission headed out to try to get a DNA sample from the calf. On Tuesday, George, with Georgia's wildlife agency, was on a team able to get close enough to the calf and its mother off Amelia Island to get a DNA sample from that calf.

Researchers with both state wildlife agencies have been collecting genetic samples from calves for nearly 20 years now, after taking up the work previously done by the New England Aquarium. The aquarium samples the whales when they're on the summer feeding grounds off New England and Nova Scotia.

Grabbing a genetic sample reveals whether the calves are male or female, helps match the calf to a mother and helps researchers identify the calf later, said George. While researchers can individually identify adult right whales by the white patches on their heads called callosities, the babies aren't identifiable until they're a couple of years old.

If they know which mother gave birth to the calf, they can infer who the father was, George said. "They've got a family tree they've been able to develop for many of the right whales," he said. The information also is useful for the models researchers have developed to assess the whale population.

The researchers use a cross bow attached to a bolt, tipped by a round piece of foam and a small biopsy punch.Most of the time the whales don't even react to giving up a skin sample, he said. "They're so big that shooting the bolt at them doesn't pay any danger to them."

At birth, a calf weighs two tons and is 15 feet long. He said the calf they sampled on Tuesday showed no reaction.

"It's a cylindrical tube that goes into the skin of the whale about two centimeters and pulls out a little piece of skin," he said. "It's about the same diameter as a pencil eraser and about a half-inch long.'

The samples are stored and shipped off once a year to a university in Canada that processes the samples.

On Thursday, the government of Canada released a number of measures it intends to take this year to protect the right whales and prevent deaths from vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. After a deadly year in 2017, when 15 whales died, no whale deaths were reported in Canada last year.

In a news release, Canadian officials said they worked with fishermen, environmental groups and others to refine the measures used last year. They include mandatory speed restrictions for large vessels in the western gulf of St. Lawrence and adjustments to area closures for the snow crab and lobster fisheries to focus on the area where 90 percent of the right whale sightings were reported last year in the region.

To report a whale sighting, call 888-979-4253 (888-97-WHALE), the North Atlantic right whale hotline with the Marine Resources Council.