The name "right whale" was given to this species by whalers, who considered the animal the "right" whale to hunt.
Right whales earned this dubious honor because they are not only large—they can reach 53 feet in length—but are also relatively slow. Their blubber contains large quantities of oil, which was used for lamps, candles, soap and other cosmetics, and paint. Their valuable baleen (a fingernail-like substance) plates—used for making umbrella spokes, hoop skirts, and "whalebone" corsets—was longer than that of any other whale. And they float when dead, making them easy to retrieve. Although commercial whaling of right whales was banned around 100 years ago, the species is still on the verge to extinction.
In the Atlantic, the species has been broken down into two hemispheric subspecies. North Atlantic right whales are generally found in the western North Atlantic of Canada and North America, while southern right whales can be found in the waters of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, southern Australia, and certain Southern Hemisphere islands (where they mate and calve) as well as the waters near Antarctica (where they feed during the summer months). The northern and southern right whale populations don't mix.
There are perhaps 350 North Atlantic right whales left, and the numbers appear to be dropping. Southern right whale populations, though still in jeopardy, are larger. For example, government officials in Australia reported that 600–800 right whales were seen using the country's coastal waters for calving each year, though the officials also point out a high probability of repeat sightings of the same whale and a "false belief that [the] species is relatively common."
Both North Atlantic and southern right whales are found near coastlines and at times in very large bays. But they're also pelagic—that is, they can be found in the open sea.
Like blue, Bryde's, minke, grey and humpbacks, right whales are baleen whales, which means that they have baleen instead of teeth. They use their baleens to skim their preferred food—tiny crustaceans such as krill and shrimp-like animals—from the water's surface.
Their skin is black, and their heads are festooned with growths called callosities, on which grow whale lice (also called cyamid crustaceans). The callosities make it easy for observers to distinguish between individual whales since no two whales have exactly the same pattern of callosities. The North Atlantic and southern right whales are nearly identical in appearance, though some scientists have noted that Southern right whales display more callosities on their "lips" than on their heads.
The species is slow to reproduce, which is one of the reasons it hasn't been able to bounce back from the devastation of commercial whaling. Though right whales are ready to reproduce at approximately eight years of age, Southern right whales only give birth every three to five years, and in the North Atlantic, females are giving birth much later and having even fewer calves.
Calves are born after approximately 13 months of gestation; they are able to swim, but are still dependent on their mothers, with whom they swim, sometimes being carried alongside in their slipstream. The calves weigh a ton at birth, and gain almost a ton a month by drinking their mother's rich milk. At one year of age, right whale calves are already on their own. Right whales are estimated to live around 50 years, though their age is hard to determine.
Although they are sometimes preyed upon by orcas, right whales have few natural enemies. Their most serious threats are human-caused: being struck by large ships, becoming entangled in fishing lines and nets, and pollution and habitat degradation of their near-shore habitats.
Updated July 9, 2007
