North Atlantic right whales face a number of threats from climate change, vessel strikes, and entanglements in fishing gear, and scientists estimate that fewer than 400 remain. Now researchers have discovered that because of these stresses, the whales are smaller than they should be, which could be leading to fewer successful births.
In southern Argentina, one of the rarest whales in the world – the Right Whale – is under siege. Sea gulls have inexplicably begun to gouge out chunks of the whales’ flesh when the mammal comes to rest on the surface. Rachael Anne Goodman visited Argentina’s Penisula Valdes, the site where researchers first noted the […]
The world’s most endangered whale, the Northern Right Whale, spends much of its life off the coast of the eastern seaboard. Many scientists suspect the right whales’ love of coastal waters has lead to a stagnation of its small population. Humans inhabit these coastal waters too, with their oil tankers, naval vessels and fishing boats. […]