Editor's note: This is part of a series of 10 stories on a variety of topics that take a look back at 2020 and forward to 2021. Many policies and practices were changed or adjusted because of the pandemic — or other disruption — and we look at how those changes will shape the future. For North Atlantic right whales, the most endangered great whale — and marine mammal — on Earth, the good news for the new year started early, with the birth of three calves in the fall. But a fourth calf washed up dead on a North Carolina beach in late November, believed to have died of natural causes soon after birth.