Critically Endangered
North Atlantic right whale
Eubalaena glacialis
The North Atlantic right whale is a baleen whale, one of three right whale species belonging to the genus Eubalaena, all of that were formerly classified as a single species.
Appearance
Its coloration is dark grey to black, with some individuals occasionally having white patches on their stomachs or throats. The most distinguishing feature for right whales is their callosities: rough, white patches of keratinized skin found on their heads.
Other unique features include a large head, that makes up a quarter of its total body length, narrow tail stock in comparison to its wide fluke, and v-shaped blowhole that produces a heart-shaped blow. Adult North Atlantic right whales average 13–18 m (43–59 ft) in length and weigh approximately 40,000 to 90,000 kg (44 to 99 short tons), they are slightly smaller on average than the North Pacific species.
Range and habitat
There are an estimated 356 individuals in existence in the western North Atlantic Ocean—they migrate between feeding grounds in the Labrador Sea and their winter calving areas off Georgia and Florida, an ocean area with heavy shipping traffic.
Distributions within other parts of Bay of Fundy is rather unknown, although whales are occasionally observed at various locations in northern parts such as in Baxters Harbour or at Campobello Island. Lawrence, notably around the Gaspé Peninsula and in the Chaleur Bay, and up to Anticosti Island, Tadoussac and in the St.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
Right whales feed mainly on copepods and other small invertebrates such as krill, pteropods, and larval barnacles, generally by slowly skimming through patches of concentrated prey at or below the ocean surface. Sei whales and basking sharks (sometimes minke whales as well) are in positions as food competitors and are known to feed in the same areas, swimming next to each other, but there have not been any conflicts observed between these species.
North Atlantic right whales are promiscuous breeders.
In crisis
A 2001 forecast showed a declining population trend in the late 1990s, and indicated a high probability that North Atlantic right whales would go extinct within 200 years if the then-existing anthropogenic mortality rate was not curtailed. According to census of individual whales identified using photo-identification techniques, the latest available stock assessment data (August 2012) indicates that a minimum of 396 recognized individuals were known to be alive in the western North Atlantic in 2010, up from 361 in 2005. In early 2009, scientists recorded a record number of births among the western North Atlantic population. 39 new calves were recorded, born off the Atlantic coast of Florida and Georgia: "Right whales, for the first time in a long time, are doing their part: they're having the babies. They're having record numbers of babies.
The right whale was purported to have reached a population of 500 in the North Atlantic, that was assumed to have been achieved for the first time in centuries, when counted in 2013. There were 411 of these animals left in 2019, when calves were born after a barren 2018.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
North Atlantic right whale is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on North Atlantic right whale, Wikidata item Q193683. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
