Right Whale

Right Whale, playful, slow-swimming whale hunted nearly to extinction by the early 1900s. This whale was named by whalers, who considered it the "right" whale to hunt because it was easy to approach and yielded economically valuable blubber and baleen, a horny substance that was widely used for corsets, carriage springs, and other items.

There are two species of right whale. Northern right whales inhabit the northern hemisphere. In the Atlantic Ocean, they have a range that extends from arctic areas such as Greenland to warmer regions such as the Florida coast, the Azores, and northwest Africa. In the Pacific Ocean, the whales’ range extends from the Gulf of Alaska south to the Gulf of California and Taiwan. The southern right whale is found throughout the southern hemisphere. Its range is primarily in the Atlantic Ocean, from Brazil and South Africa south to Patagonia, as well as from Australia south to the Chatham Islands and other subarctic areas. Both species are often found in shallow, coastal waters and sometimes in bays. Like many whales, they migrate to warmer waters in the winter to breed.

Right whales reach lengths of 11 to 18 m (36 to 59 ft) and weights of 30 to 70 metric tons. They have chubby bodies, a very large lower lip, big flippers, a rounded back, and pointed flukes (tail lobes). Their large heads, which are up to one-third of the body volume, are covered with callosities, thickened skin patches that may be covered with whale lice (small parasitic crustaceans), barnacles, or algae. The right whale's body is black or dark brown, with irregular white patches on the underside. The whale's blow—the stream of air and water exhaled from the blowhole—is V-shaped and reaches about 5 m (about 16 ft) high.

These lively whales will leap completely out of the water, or breach, up to ten times in a row. The spectacular landing splash can be heard more than a kilometer, or nearly a mile, away. They also perform headstands, waving their flukes straight up in the air.

As a baleen whale, the right whale has huge cartilaginous structures known as baleen plates, or whalebone, instead of teeth. Right whales eat krill, tiny shrimplike crustaceans, and other organisms that float on or near the surface. The whales strain their food from the water through the fringelike portion of the baleen plates.

Right whales are as expressive in their mating rituals as in their play. For example, they often give the water hearty slaps with their large, rectangular flippers to intimidate a rival or attract a mate. Females begin breeding at 5 to 10 years old and bear a single calf every three to four years. Pregnancies last a year and the newborns weigh about 1 metric ton.

Both species of right whale have been protected since 1937. However, only the southern species has begun to recover from the widespread hunting during the 19th century. Its population is estimated at 3000 to 5000 animals. The northern right whale is considered endangered, with a population of just 300 to 600 animals—a legacy of its role as the "right" whale for human consumption.

Scientific classification: Right whales are members of the Balaenidae family of the suborder Mysticeti, order Cetacea. The northern right whale is classified as Eubalaena glacialis and the southern right whale as Eubalaena australis.

Right Whale Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2001. © 1993-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.