Ask and Experts Answer
Contributed by Whale Expert Anne Smrcina
Stellwagen Bank National Marine
Why do they call it the right whale?
The right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) got its common name from the fact
that it was "the right whale" to hunt. This is because it had
large amounts of blubber or fat. It was very slow and easy to chase, and
it floated when it was killed making it easy to handle.
Why did people want whale blubber?
Oil produced from blubber was used in lamps and as a lubricant. Blubber
contains over 60% oils, and was used in the manufacture of margarine,
lard and shortening.
What does a right whale look like?
Northern right whales are black with variable gray patches on their throats
and bellies. Large amounts of blubber give the right whale a particularly
rotund appearance.They have large heads (more than one quarter of the
body length), a narrow upper jaw and a curved lower jaw. The right whale
has no dorsal fin, has extremely long baleen plates in its arched upper
jaw (about 7 feet long), and reaches a length of about 60 feet. Right
whales have tough white patches of skin on their heads called callosites.
How much does a right whale weigh?
Adult whales which average 12-16.5 meters (40-55 feet), can weigh up to
63.5 metric tons (139,700 pounds).
What are callosites?
A striking feature of the right whale is its pattern of callosities, which
are patches of thickened skin often covered by whale lice -- a type of
crustacean. These white patches on its head, over its eyes, and around
its mouth are used by researchers to identify individual whales. Each
whale has a different pattern. But since a right whale doesn't often get
much of its head out of the water, it makes it hard for the researcher
to identify each whale. It often takes quite some time (sometimes using
many photographs) to make a match.
Do right whales have teeth?
Right whales are one of a group of whales that don't have teeth. They
are called baleen whales. Some other whales with baleen include gray whales,
bowheads,clue whales and minke whales. These are often referred to as
the "great whales".
What is baleen?
Baleen is a fringed, mustache-like material found in their mouths. Instead
of having teeth, the right whale draws in its food in a large quantity
of water. The food is trapped behind the baleen when the excess water
Why were whale hunters interested in baleen?
One right whale could yield as much as 540 kilograms (1188 pounds) of
baleen. Manufactures fashioned the strong and highly flexible baleen into
buggy whips, umbrella stays, skirt hoops, strapping for beds, brushes
and caning for chairs. The baleen from one whale would pay the expenses
for the entire voyage.
What kind of a spout does the right whale blow hole
The blow holes of right whales are divided on the surface, forming two
holes typical of baleen whales. Visible from a distance, the spout is
identified by a nearly vertical "V" shape.
Do right whales have hair?
If you look closely, sparse hair appears in the tips of the chin and upper
jaw. It is believed that whales once had hair but they became more hydrodynamically
designed as they evolved into water animals.
How do whales breath?
Right whales are voluntary breathers meaning they have to consciously
breath in and out (it's not an involuntary reaction like we have). They
swim to the surface to draw in air through their blowholes. Whales have
limited breathing functions through their mouths. When a whale inhales,
it fills up its lungs to capacity each tie and then exhales 90% of its
air supply with each breath. Humans exhale only 25% of their lung capacity.
The whales exhale through the blowholes, a whole exhale in less than half
a second and sometimes at over 300 mp, while inhaling takes place in a
leisurely second. They can hold their breath for up to 30 minutes if they
How do whales sleep?
Whales don't sleep like us -- they are voluntary breathers meaning they
have to consciously breath in and out. Studies on dolphins have shown
that they rest one-half of their brains at a time -- so they are "sleeping"
at half speed. We don't know much about this lower state of awareness
in the great whales. Perhaps this is happening during "logging"
behavior (when whales are seen quietly resting at the surface with little
movement except for an occasional blow). It would seem that the whales
are going into a deep rest rather than a deep sleep.
Did whales once have arms and legs?
It was thought that once very long ago the whales had arms and legs. Today
whales have adapted to life in water. A strong tail replaced the legs.
The tail has two "wings" or flukes that developed on the sides
of the tail. Whales have flippers. If you could see inside the flipper
you would find that it has five fingers and is surprising similar to the
do right whales stay warm in the cold ocean waters?
Right whales have developed several mechanisms for regulating heat loss.
They have a very thick blubber layer (up to one and a half feet in depth)
which keeps the heat in and prevents it from escaping to the outside.
In addition, the right whale's body is relatively compact with few appendages
thereby reducing the surface to volume ratio. With less surface, more
heat can be kept inside. In addition, whales also have decreased breathing
rates, which adds to their ability to maintain body heat without expelling
it (via warmed air) to the environment.
How do they cool down when they are in the warmer
southern calving grounds?
When they have to get rid of excess heat (perhaps when they're down in
southern waters), they have some sections of the body where blood vessels
are closer to the surface (flippers and tail) and blood circulation can
be increased for release of heat.
and Feeding Behaviors:
How much food does a whale eat in one day?
right whale may be eating about 2,625 pounds of copepods (a type of zooplankton)
a day when it's in Cape Cod Bay or another feeding ground.
is a copepod?
are small crustaceans that look like tiny shrimp with large antennae.
The largest of the copepods (but still very small), Calanus finmarchicus
or Cal fin, is the right whale's favorite food, although they also eat
other types of copepods including Pseudocalanus.
do the whales find the copepods?
copepods do not stay in one place in the water column. Unlike phytoplankton
which stay close to the surface, the copepods migrate -- down during the
day and up towards the surface in the late afternoon and evening.
Cape Cod Bay is very shallow (deepest depths are in the 200 foot range,
and most areas are much less). Therefore, copepods may reach the surface
late in the day where surface feeding or skim feeding may occur. During
mid-day, the whales usually have to dive for their food. When the whales
move on up to the Bay of Fundy later in the summer, depths are greater
(600-800 feet), the copepods usually don't make it to the surface, and
skim feeding is rarely seen.
does the whale eat?
As the whale swims, water passes through the opening at the center of
the whale's mouth (there is no baleen here). Water flows into the mouth
and out through the baleen. Any small animals, such as copepods, juvenile
krill, and other small zooplankton, are caught in the fine hairs. When
the whale has collected enough food, the short but thick tongue pushes
out the excess water, closes off the opening and sweeps the food from
the baleen plates.
How do the whales find their food?
Baleen whales have a remarkable ability to locate dense patches of plankton
in a vast ocean. Scientists still don't know how the whales do this. Right
whales spend four to five months a year in northern Atlantic waters increasing
their amount of blubber. The blubber serves as both insulation and energy
reserves necessary for surviving potentially food-scarce winters.
Are the southern calving grounds rich in food?
Compared to the northern waters, there is little food off the southeast
coast, and feeding behaviors have not been recorded while right whales
are the calving area.
What kind of digestive system does this whale have?
Whales have three major chambers that make up their stomachs. Interestingly,
this type of stomach is very similar to animals called ungulates, which
include cows, sheep, camels and deer.
How much food does a right whale eat?
These large mammals, eating some of the smallest prey, need upwards of
a million calories as day to maintain body functions. That amounts to
about 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) of plankton daily.
How does that compare to what humans eat?
A million calories to a 50 ton animal is equivalent to 1,500 calories
to a 150 pound person. So the whale actually has a more efficient system
than the human.
Range and Migration:
are right whales found?
Finding right whales throughout the year is a task that has proven difficult
because of the low number of whales, the enormous size of their range,
and the tremendous distances they swim during the year. Although scientists
understand the basic seasonal migration patterns, many gaps remain, and
researchers rarely know the location of the majority of whales at any
one time. Today, researchers know of only five locations where they are
found. These areas include the Georgia and Florida coasts, Stellwagen
Bank and Cape Cod Bay, the Great South Channel east of Cape Cpd, the Bay
of Fundy, and the Scotian Shelf.
Why is it difficult to know where to find the whales?
Because whales are animals of the sea, we can't easily see them. Spotting
them from boats is not easy because of their dark color and lack of a
How do researchers know about right whale population
To track the whales, researchers had to first learn how to identify and
recognize individuals. Fortunately, right whales are easy to tell apart
because of the thick skin patches called callosites on their heads. They
also have distinctive scars from encounters with boats and ships. This
ability to identify individuals helps to determine whether whales return
to the same area every year, which females have given birth, how whales
are related to each other, and which ones may have died. Pictures of the
whales are cataloged and kept for reference at the New England Aquarium
for all researchers to use.
Can right whales be tagged so their movements can
Scientists use a couple kinds of tags to monitor these whales. One tag
uses satellite transmissions to monitor them. The short battery life of
the transmitters and the overall expense limits their usefulness.. Another
tag sends a radio signal but can only be monitored from a boat or a plane.
What do we know for sure about where they are
The 300 or so right whales now found along the east coast of the United
States have certain "home bases" for particular times of the
year. These areas include the Georgia and Florida coasts, Stellwagen Band
and Cape Cod Bay, the Great South Channel east of Cape Cod, the Bay of
Fundy, and the Scotian Shelf.
When are they found in these different habitat areas?
During the winter, pregnant females head down to the Florida/Georgia coastline
where they deliver their calves -- this is the only known calving ground
for the species. Cape Cod Bay and Stellwagen Bank attract whales during
the February through April time period (although over the course of the
past 20 years, right whales have been seen in these waters in almost every
month, but often just one or two at a time). April and May see the whales
moving out into the Great South Channel between Cape Cod and Georges Bank.
Later on in the summer and early fall, right whales head up to Canadian
waters (Bay of Fundy, Browns Bank) for feeding and breeding.
Where do the males and nonpregnant females go in the
of the biggest mysteries is where the males and nonpregnant females go
during the winter months. They leave the northern feeding grounds but
do not show up in the Florida/Georgia waters during the time that the
pregnant females are there. At this point no one knows where they go.
old does a whale need to be before they give birth?
Females reach reproductive maturity between
seven and ten years old, although it is known that one female gave birth
at five years.
How often do females reproduce?
Because a female will nurse her young calf for 10 to 12 months she
tends to require one to three years to recover her energy between calvings.
Remember that a whale's gestation period (the amount of time she is pregnant)
is about one year.
If females can give birth every one to three years,
why isn't the population growing?
While collisions with ships and entanglement in fishing gear are partially
to blame for the slow recovery of the right whale population, scientists
are also investigating whether a decreasing birth rate is a factor.
What factors can lead to a decreasing birth rate?
Because there was such a small population of whales, only about 100
northern right whales left in 1935, there wasn't a lot of genetic diversity
in the species. Low diversity can lead to a low birth rate. Some researchers
think that all of our northern right whale population may be descendants
of only 2 or 3 females.
Where do whales go to give birth?
Calving takes place during the winter off the coasts of Georgia and
Do the male whales help raise the calves?
Males don't participate at all in raising the calves. Researchers
have rarely spotted males in the calving grounds. The only time they have
seen males and females interact is during courtship.
Where does courtship and breeding take place?
Researchers have observed what they consider to be courtship behavior
throughout the year from the Florida coast to the Bay of Fundy. Most intense
courtship activity has been observed in the Scotian Shelf during August
they mate with the same partner for life?
No, we don't think there is any pairing up in baleen whales.
Why are there so few right whales?
Right whales were hunted heavily along the east coast of North America
as far back as the 16th century. They were easy whales to hunt because
their feeding habits brought them close to the surface and near to the
When was hunting the right whale outlawed?
Right whales were given protection in 1935.
In 1935, how big was the right whale population?
Scientists estimated that in 1935 there were only about 100 right whales
left in the North Atlantic Ocean. Many feared that the northern right
whale would become extinct.
Has the population recovered since 1935?
The population along the North American coastline has a population of
only 300 to 350 individuals. Before the 15th century and the era of intensive
whaling it is estimated that there was a population of over 100,000.
Why isn't the right whale population growing?
We think there are four main factors why the population size isn't increasing.
First, collisions with ships using the same routes for traveling that
the whales occupy. Second, the whales suffer greatly from entanglement
in certain types of fishing gear. Next, coastal marine habitats have been
degrading from effects of expanding human populations. And last, general
disturbance from ocean vessels.
helps free the whales tangled in fish nets and equipment?
There is a group led by the Center
for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, MA, who has successfully freed several
whales over the years.
Who studies and protects the whales in their southern
A group of agencies (called the Southeast United States Implementation
Team for the Recovery of the Northern Right Whale) helps coordinate right
whale recovery activities throughout the Southeast. The team is made up
of representatives from the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Navy,
the U.S. Coast Guard,
and the National Marine Fisheries Service,
the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection, and the Port Authority.
Who watches over the whales so they avoid collisions
The Implementation Team has also developed an early warning system to
help reduce the number of vessel collisions.
How does an early warning system work to keep ships
from colliding with whales?
The New England Aquarium makes daily flights over the calving grounds
from December to March, and forwards the location of right whales to ships
passing through the area.
How can individuals help in the fight to save the
northern right whales?
way that individuals can help is by sponsoring a whale. There are three
right whale sponsorship programs in North America. The New
England Aquarium, the primary research organization
for saving the right whale has a noational sponsorship program which raises
funds to partially support this research effort. In addition, two other
agencies are working with the New England Aquarium. The Ocean Society
in Atlanta, Georgia and the East
Coast Ecosystems in Freeport, Nova Scotia both
have adoption programs in place.