Family Balaenidae (Right Whales)

IDENTIFICATION
The Right Whale got its name from whalers who thought it was the "right" whale to hunt. Whalers preferred the Right Whale because it swims slowly and floats when dead. The Northern Right Whale's body is black or charcoal grey, except for a white region on the belly. It has no dorsal fin and its rostrum is low, narrow and arched. It has "bonnets" or bumps on the upper surface of the head just in front of the blowholes. When the Northern Right Whale blows, its plume of exhaled air has a "V" shape, often about 4.5 metres high.

MEALS, MANNERS AND MIGRATION
Northern Right Whales rarely dive deep, but they can be very acrobatic, breaching and smacking the surface with tails or flippers. A Northern Right Whale has black baleen plates up to 2.4 metres long, which it uses to catch copepods and euphausiids near the surface. This feeding strategy is known as skimming. Males are sexually mature at a length of 14 to 15.5 metres, and females at 15 to 16 metres; both sexes reach maturity at about ten years old. Cows bear young in winter or spring every two to four years after a 12-month gestation period. A newborn calf is about 4.5 to 6 metres long and has with no bumps on its head. Northern Right Whales migrate seasonally north-south, but migrating whales may linger in the same area for weeks.

STATUS
It seems doubtful that the Northern Right Whale will ever recover from the intensive commercial harvest of the 19th century. COSEWIC lists this species as endangered.

DISTRIBUTION
Although once found throughout the cooler waters of the northern hemisphere this whale exists today in small remnant populations. In the eastern Pacific Northern Right Whales range from the Gulf of Alaska, south to California. It is a rare species in B.C. waters.