Right Whale

Whales are a member of a family called balanidae.

The Right Whale grows to be about sixty feet long and will be about twelve feet long when it is born. Adults weigh about sixty tons when they are fully grown.

They are black in color, although they can range to other hues, with very distinctive patches of rough skin about their head and foreparts.

Females do not begin to breed until about age 13 and will breed only once every three or four years. It takes them nearly two years to produce the calf.

Right Whale Drawing

They bear one calf during the winter months which weigh about a ton each and breed every 3–5 years. Both reproduction and calving take place during the winter months.

The right whale grows rapidly in its first year, typically doubling in length. Weaning occurs after a bout a year and the growth rate is not well understood or known because of the rarity of the animals it is difficult to find enough to study.

The Right whale got its name from the whaling crews, sadly enough, who used to call it the “right” whale to harpoon for the oils and baleen that was used from the whales, and because they very often came near shore to swim.

Additionally they were the Right whale to kill because they floated when killed so there was no need to go after them.

Whalers were so voracious in their harvesting of this particular whale that its numbers were simply decimated and had no real chance of survival without some kind of intervention.

So many were killed in fact that there were estimated to be only about 250 left alive and there was estimated going to be a further 20 or 25% decline within about two generations for the whales.

The Right whale, once the most hunted of all animals is now among the most protected by law.
Find out more about the Endangered Right Whale over at Wikipedia »