There are 3 species of right whales: the North Atlantic right whale, North Pacific right whale, and the southern right whale. Right whales got their name from whalers, who considered them the "right" whale to hunt. They are slow-moving, making them fairly easy to kill, plus their thick blubber layer made them float when killed, so they were easier to process than other more streamlined whale species.
North Atlantic right whales are found off the eastern coast of the U.S. and Canada, and migrate from high-latitude feeding grounds off Canada and New England to low-latitude breeding grounds off the southeastern U.S. Their populations are estimated at about 400-500 individuals.
North Pacific right whales are found in the North Pacific Ocean, between Russia and Alaska. There are two populations of North Pacific right whales - a western population found in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia, which is thought to number in the hundreds, and a genetically-distinctive eastern population that lives in the Bering Sea off Alaska, which is thought to number about 30.
Compared to their northern counterparts, southern right whale populations are doing much better. These whales can be found off South Africa, Argentina, Australia, and parts of New Zealand, and their population was estimated at 7,000 in 2001.
Have you ever seen a right whale?
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Image: Southern right whale, courtesy Jon Mountjoy, Flickr
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