The North Atlantic Right Whale - The Endangered Whale
What’s in a name?The North Atlantic Right Whale was named by whale hunters, who considered this to be the best or “Right” whale to hunt. The North Atlantic Right Whales are slow swimmers compared to others, they float after death, they spend periods of time on the water surface, and the females have a strong maternal instinct (the mother takes good care of her babies). This meant that if the hunter killed a calf first, the mother would try to stay with the calf and the hunter would end up with them both. Hunters usually took advantage of this.
Weight and size:Adult Right Whales can be as long as 55 ft. (17meters) and can weigh up to 100 tonnes. Their calves are 20-25 feet long or 6-7 m
Special Features:One of the first identifying features of the Right Whale is the distinctive blow or spout. Their spout is “V” shaped and up to 5meters or 16ft high. Another distinctive feature is the fact that they do not have a dorsal fin. The tail fluke of the Right Whale is usually quite vertical and as wide as 6 meters (20ft). Their tail is very dark in color and contains a deep notch in the center.
Distinguishing one from another:On the head of each of these adult right whales are callosities. These are rough and raised patches of skin on their face that turns white. Each whale has very different callosities on their face and scars on their bodies making it easy for researchers to identify them and track their progress. There are currently about 350 North Atlantic Right Whales identified and tracked using their special markings. This represents the entire population. These whales are considered an endangered species.
What do they eat?The North Atlantic Right Whale is a baleen whale. This means that it uses a straining system (baleen) to filter their food as they skim the surface of the water for crustaceans, copepods, and krill. They can consume up to 5500lb of food each day. That’s a lot of fish!!!
The New England Aquarium out of Boston Massachusetts operates a yearly project that tracks and identifies all the North Atlantic Right Whales. The whales are observed daily during the summer months from the Grand Manan Basin area just off the coast of Grand Manan New Brunswick. It is very important to identify the calves that arrive in the Bay of Fundy each year so that researchers can chart their maternal relationship and monitor their progress. This species of whale has been sighted between the Gulf of Mexico and Iceland but most of them prefer the water between New Brunswick, Canada and Florida, USA. These whales come to the nutrient rich waters of the Bay of Fundy to feed in the summer and fall and return to the warmer water to mate and have their young. The gestation period for Right Whales is close to a year with calves born in the winter in the warmer southern water. Only one calf is born each time and this female can only give birth approximately every 4 years. The mother of a calf is very maternal. They will stay in close contact until the calf is mature enough to be on it’s own.
New Brunswick Whale Watching Tours:New Brunswick offers Whale Watching tours departing from St. Andrews, Deer Island, Campobello Island and Grand Manan Island. We were on a whale watching tour called "Sea Watch Tours" from Grand Manan in late August and it was excellent!! The North Atlantic Right Whales were there and they put on quite a show! We liked it so much we went back the following year and took two other families with us.Return to Grand Manan New Brunswick from North Atlantic Right Whale
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