Chapter III — Species of Special Concern 
Northern Right Whale 
(Eubalaena glacialis) 
Centuries of commercial hunting for right whales 
have made the northern right whale the world’s most 
endangered large whale. One or more populations 
still survive in each of the North Atlantic and North 
Pacific Oceans; however, northern right whales may 
now number fewer than 400 animals worldwide. 
In the western North Atlantic Ocean, right whales 
occur seasonally in at least five locations. They are 
found along the coast of Georgia and Florida in 
winter; in Cape Cod Bay and in the Great South 
Channel off Massachusetts in spring; in the Bay of 
Fundy near the U.S.-Canadian border from summer 
through early fall; and off the southern tip of Nova 
Scotia from spring through fall. Where most of the 
population goes in winter, however, is unknown. The 
only known winter habitat lies within a few miles of 
the coasts of Florida and Georgia and its use is limited 
principally to mature females with newborn calves, 
females about to give birth, and a few juvenile ani- 
mals. Photo-identification studies over the past 15 
years indicate that the whales using these five areas 
are part of a single population numbering about 350 
animals. At present, this group appears to represent 
the species’ best chance for survival. 
In the eastern North Atlantic Ocean, where right 
whales were first commercially exploited on a regular 
basis, the species appears to have been extirpated. 
Harvesting of right whales began there in the 11th 
century by Basque fishermen operating along the 
coasts of present-day Spain and France and continued 
through the first third of this century. Over the past 
60 years, there have been only about 10 reliable 
accounts of right whales off the coasts of western 
Europe and the Azores and Madeira. Most of these 
records are of single animals, and none involves more 
than two animals. These reported animals may have 
been stragglers from the western North Atlantic. 
In the North Pacific Ocean, the species’ status may 
not be much better. The full force of commercial 
whaling was brought to bear abruptly on North Pacific 
right whales stocks in the mid-1800s when Yankee 
whalers discovered the North Pacific whaling 
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grounds. By the end of the century, northern right 
whales in the Pacific were commercially extinct and 
close to biological extinction. In the past 50 years, 
right whale sightings, strandings, and catch records in 
the North Pacific are so few and so widely scattered 
that there is no basis for assessing how many animals 
remain. There are no known locations in the North 
Pacific basin or adjacent seas where right whales can 
be found, and for the past several decades there have 
been no reports of calves. Northern right whales 
could disappear from the North Pacific Ocean by the 
end of this century. 
Although belatedly, right whales were the first 
whales to receive international protection from com- 
mercial hunting. The first International Convention 
for the Regulation of Whaling, which entered into 
force in 1935, prohibited the hunting of right whales, 
a ban that was accepted by most whaling nations. 
This prohibition was carried forward by the Interna- 
tional Whaling Commission under the 1946 Interna- 
tional Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and 
has been accepted by all whaling nations for several 
decades. Right whales also are listed on Appendix I 
of the Convention on International Trade in Endan- 
gered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, designated as 
endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, 
and considered as depleted under the U.S. Marine 
Mammal Protection Act. 
Despite nearly 60 years of protection from whal- 
ing, the number of northern right whales remains 
perilously low. Because information on their abun- 
dance in the first half of this century is almost non- 
existent, it is not clear whether or at what rate their 
numbers may have changed since then. Thus, it is not 
known if the present population estimate of some 350 
animals in the western North Atlantic Ocean reflects 
a substantial increase, a further decrease, or an 
equivalent number of whales compared to the size of 
this population in the 1930s when international protec- 
tion from whaling began. 
Although population trends in recent decades are 
uncertain, it is likely that, for at least some stocks, 
recovery has been retarded by human activities other 
than whaling that have killed or injured animals and 
degraded essential habitat. Because of the extremely 
small number of whales remaining and because mature 
