Northern right whales, hunted to near extinction, are the rarest of all large whales. Experts estimate that only several hundred exist in the wild.
Photograph courtesy NOAA
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Fast Facts
Type:
Mammal
Diet:
Carnivore
Size:
50 ft (15.25 m)
Weight:
70 tons (63.5 m tons)
Group name:
Pod
Protection status:
Endangered
Right whales were named by whalers who identified them as the "right" whale to kill on a hunt. These leviathans had enormous value for their plentiful oil and baleen, which were used for corsets, buggy whips, and other contrivances. Because of their thick blubber, right whales also float accommodatingly after they have been killed. Populations of these whales were decimated during the whaling heydays of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. During this period they came close to extinction.
Because females do not become sexually mature until ten years of age and give birth to a single calf after a yearlong pregnancy, populations grow slowly.
All species of right whales are endangered and have enjoyed complete international protection since 1949. Several thousand southern right whales are believed to survive, and they have shown some encouraging population growth since their protection. South Africa's population is believed to have grown from 100 to 1,000 animals since 1940.
Northern right whales are the most endangered by National Geographic
