RIGHT WHALE (B) 



Eubalaena glacialis (Borowski 1781) 



Other Common Names 



Black right whale. Biscayan right whale, Biscay whale, 

 Nordcaper right whale. 



Description 



These right whales reach a length of about 53 feet (16.2 

 m). 



The body is rotund and completely lacking a dorsal fin or a 

 dorsal ridge. The upper jaw is long, narrow, and highly 

 arched. The lips are similarly highly arched. The top of the 

 head has a series of bumps or callosities, the largest one of 

 which is known as the "bonnet," on the upper surface in front 

 of the blowholes. Yellowish-brown lice and, less frequently, 

 barnacles grow on the callosities. The color and extent of the 

 callosities varies from one individual to the next. 



The two blowholes are widely separated, resulting in the 

 projection of the blow upward as two distinct spouts. The 

 body is dark on the back, sometimes black, more often brown 

 or mottled, usually has a region of white on the chin and belly, 

 and sometimes has numerous small grayish-white scars of 

 unknown origin. The baleen plates are up to 7.2 feet (2.2 m) 

 long, very narrow, and variable in color from dark brownish 

 through dark gray to black in color. When the animals swim, 

 mouth agape near the surface, the baleen sometimes 

 appears pale yellowish gray in color. 



Natural History Notes 



Right whales are usually not wary of boats and may often 

 be approached very closely. 



Like sperm and humpback whales, they usually throw 

 their flukes high into the air when beginning a long dive. 



Right whales feed primarily on copepods. 



Historically, this whale was nearly exterminated by 

 hunters, who took advantage of its slow speed and who knew 

 that its carcass floats, to harvest these animals for their great 

 yield of whalebone and oil. It was these characteristics which 

 prompted whalers to dub these animals the "right" whales to 

 kill (as opposed to the ones that were too fast to catch and 

 sank when killed). 



May Be Confused With 



The distinct blow of the right whales and their smooth 



dark back, devoid of any traces of a dorsal fin. m.ake it 

 unlikely that the species will be confused with any other large 

 whales except, perhaps, the bowhead whale. In the event 

 that the expansion of their ranges again causes these two 

 species to overlap in distribution, they can be distinguished 

 from one another by the characteristics discussed on p. 49. 

 If only the flukes are seen as the animal begins a dive, 

 right and bowhead whales may be distinguished from the 

 other two species of large whales exhibiting this behavior, 

 the sperm and the humpback, in this way: the flukes of right 

 and bowhead whales are broad, pointed on the tips, greatly 

 concave towards a deep fluke notch, and dark below: 

 those of the sperm whale are more nearly triangular, while 

 those of the humpback whale have a jagged irregular or 

 rippled rear margin and are sometimes variously white 

 below. 



Distribution 



Like its more northern relative, the bowhead whale, the 

 right whale was once the object of a widespread and 

 extensive whale fishery, which reduced the species to 

 critically low numbers. 



Though the former range of right whales is not clearly 

 known, the species is thought to have been abundant from the 

 Davis Straits south at least to the Carolinas and Bermuda and 

 to have occurred in winter to Florida and perhaps into the 

 Gulf of Mexico. 



Currently, right whales are known from Iceland south to 

 Florida. Animals move north along the eastern Florida coast 

 between early January and late March. During this time the 

 species has also been observed in the Gulf of Mexico off 

 southwestern Florida and Texas. Right whales pass the coast 

 of New England in fair numbers in spring and continue as far 

 north as at least Nova Scotia. Right whales are also found off 

 Iceland, though the migration routes to and from Iceland 

 waters are not known. The recent apparent increases in 

 numbers at the northern and southern coastal approaches in 

 New England and Florida, respectively, lend credibility to 

 the hopeful contention that the species will again recolonize 

 its historical range. 



Stranded Specimens 



Stranded right whales can be easily identified by all the 

 characters discussed on p. 49 and summarized in Table 2. 



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