By: Nathan Tse

The North Atlantic right whale is found off the east coast of America and near Europe, and has been endangered since 1970. They are getting tangled up in fishing gear, and disturbed by noise from boats. They’re also bumping into boats, and climate change is making their prey (krill) go somewhere with heavy boat traffic, making the whales go somewhere with heavy boat traffic, and eventually, they crash into a boat.

There are only 350-360 North Atlantic Right Whales left in the wild, and according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, since 2017, 142 have experienced an Unusual Mortality Event (UME). UME means they died or got injured, and if this keeps up, these poor whales could be extinct in a decade or two, so we have to take action! Stay 500 yards away from these whales, report injured whales here and report right whale sightings here.

North Atlantic right whales are kind of like tanks, in that they’re heavy, big, and dense. They have stocky black bodies, spouts shaped like a “V,” and flippers shaped like short paddles. Their calves are about 14 feet when there born, and adults can be up to 52 feet. They each have a unique pattern of callosities (knobby white patches of rough skin) which are caused by cyamids (whale lice) covering their black skin.

Right whales can live for about 70 years, but getting tangled up in fishing gear and bumping into boats is making them die earlier; they now only live about 45-65 years old. Female right whales giving birth with a three-year interval is healthy, but now they are giving birth with 6-10-year intervals. Biologists think stress caused by getting tangled up in fishing gear is making the whales give birth less often.

Sources:
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/north-atlantic-right-whale/overview
https://www.bbc.com/newsround/articles/cn08z44g8z3o

Image Credit by Andrea Holien