North Atlantic right whales

About North Atlantic right whale:

• These whales are migratory animals, spending the winter in warmer waters and migrating to the poles for cooler waters in late summer.
• These whales inhabit the temperate and subpolar waters of the north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans.
• Habitat: Depending on the time of year and which hemisphere they’re found, right whales will spend much of their time near bays and peninsulas and in shallow, coastal waters.
• Distribution: These are generally restricted to the coastal waters of the East coast of the United States and Canada.
• There are three recognized species of right whales that occur in different parts of the world. These are Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis), North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) and North Pacific right whales.
• These whales often skim feed at or just below the water surface, slowly swimming through clouds of plankton with their mouths half open and then straining the plankton through their long baleen plates.
• Conservation status
  • IUCN: Critically endangered
  • CITES: Appendix I

Q1: What is the International Whaling Commission?

It was set up under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) which was signed in Washington DC in 1946. It has the objective to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry.

News: Right whale population grows 4% but extinction remains a threat

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