Just the Facts: North Atlantic Right Whale Information

Where have all the right whales gone? Hunters killed almost all the North Atlantic right whales by the early 20th century. It has been against the law to hunt them for more than 70 years, but they are still one of the world's most endangered marine mammals. Only about 400 are alive today. They make their home in the Atlantic Ocean along the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada -- where lots of fishermen and ships travel, too.	Image taken by and copyright to the Whale Center of New England under NMFS right whale permit number 605-1607.
Did You Know? Right whales don't have teeth. They have baleen, which looks like a comb and filters tiny shrimp-like copepods out of the water for food.
These whales have big bodies- and big heads: Right whales, among the rarest of all whales, have enormous heads which can measure up to one-third of their total body length. They have weird growths on their heads, which scientists use to tell them apart, called "callosities" (you say it like this: kah-laus'-eh-tees). These are hardened patches of skin covered by hundreds of cyamids, also known as whale "lice," which causes the patches to look white.	Photo: NOAA
Did You Know? Scientists believe that right whales can live to be 60 years old or older.
How to recognize a right whale: Right whales are the only whales to have callosities on their heads. You can also tell a right whale from other kinds of whales because it doesn’t have a top fin, called a dorsal fin, on its back. And when a right whale breathes out from its two blowholes, the whale's breath, combined with water droplets, makes a v-shape.	Photo: NOAA
Did You Know? Right whales can be 50 feet long, which is 10 feet longer than a school bus, and can weigh as much as 60 tons!
What’s for dinner? North Atlantic right whales feed in the colder waters of the Gulf of Maine and Canada from spring to fall. These huge animals eat small shrimp-like creatures called copepods. They skim along through a patch of their favorite food with their mouths open, and their baleen catches the copepods and filters them out of the water.	Image taken by and copyright to Wildlife Trust under NMFS right whale permit number 932-1489.
Did You Know? A single right whale can consume more than 2,500 pounds of food a day. That's a lot of krill!
Whales on the move: North Atlantic right whales live in the Atlantic Ocean, and are found from Canada all the way south to Florida. They give birth to their calves in the warm waters off Florida and Georgia during the winter. Then they return to the colder waters of the north in the spring, where they stay until the fall, feeding and storing up fat.	Photo: NOAA
Did You Know? Right whale calves will stay with their moms a year or more before going off on their own.

Obstacles in the Way of Right Whale Safety

Threats from fishing rope: Ropes used for fishing drown North Atlantic right whales by tangling around them and preventing them from surfacing for air. Fishermen can prevent these deaths by using ropes that sink, which is less likely to entangle whales.

Threats from ships: Ships and whales share the ocean, and often times there are collisions and a whale is injured or dies. To prevent this, ships can reduce their speed in waters they share with whales and avoid many collisions.

Threats from trash: Thousands of sea animals are choked or poisoned by trash each year. Each September, hundreds of thousands of volunteers clean up tons of trash. Join the clean up event at http://www.h2oc.org/.

Do you need more facts? If you are doing a book report or just want to know more about right whales, click here for facts you can print.