Where have all the right whales gone?
Hunters killed almost all the North Atlantic right whales by the early 20th century. It has been against the law to hunt them for more than 70 years, but they are still one of the world’s most endangered marine mammals. Only about 400 are alive today. They make their home in the Atlantic Ocean along the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada — where lots of fishermen and ships travel, too. Image taken by and copyright to the Whale Center of New England under NMFS right whale permit number 605-1607. Did You Know? Right whales don’t have teeth. They have baleen, which looks like a comb and filters tiny shrimp-like copepods out of the water for food. These whales have big bodies- and big heads: Right whales, among the rarest of all whales, have enormous heads which can measure up to one-third of their total body length. They have weird growths on their heads, which scientists use to tell them apart, called “callosities” (you say it like this: kah-laus’-eh-tees). These are hardened patches of
