Disappearing Giants: The North Atlantic Right Whale

The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is the most endangered large whale in the oceans today. Fewer than 400 are left in their breeding and feeding grounds, which extend from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico. Survivors of hundreds of years of commercial exploitation, the right whales we see in the ocean today are barometers for the plight of whales. For over 900 years, whalers hunted these animals almost out of existence. By 1935, when they were at last given international p...