Species

The North Pacific right whale is one of the world’s rarest cetaceans, almost hunted to extinction until the 1960s. It is rarely sighted and has a poor prognosis for survival due to collisions with ships, entanglement in fishing nets and the prospect of offshore oil and gas development in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. WWF is working to improve shipping safety to avoid collisions and trying to prevent oil and gas development in Bristol Bay, the whale’s primary summer feeding ground.

Right whales were named by whalers who thought they were the "right" whales to hunt because they are big, slow, and float when killed. They are large, rotund, black whales with large heads, easily identified because they have no dorsal fin, a highly arched jaw, and a series of growths on their head called callosities. Preferring coastlines and large bays, Right whales can spend a lot of time on the open sea. They are believed to have excellent hearing, especially at low frequencies, which is valuable in the dark ocean environment where vision is less useful.

What do they eat?
Right whales, like most great whales, are baleen whales. They strain and filter their food through baleen plates, eating mostly small crustaceans, including copepods and small shrimp-like animals called euphausiids.

How long do they live?
Right whales mate at around eight-years-old. Females are pregnant for about 13 months and give birth every three to five years. The calf spends most of its time swimming close to its mother and is carried in the mother's 'slip stream', the wake that develops as the mother swims. From tissue analysis, scientists believe that right whales live at least 50 years.