North Pacific Right Whale

The North Pacific right whale is a massive baleen whale with a broad black body, no dorsal fin and a head comprising roughly one quarter of its length. Raised rough patches called callosities occur around the mouth, eyes and blowholes and form individually recognizable patterns. Adults reach about 13.7–19.5m and can weigh approximately 91 tonnes (NOAA Fisheries species account). in documented populations.

Right whales are skim feeders: they swim slowly with the mouth open, filtering copepods and other zooplankton through long baleen plates. Modern sightings are concentrated mainly in the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk, though the historical range was broader across temperate and subpolar North Pacific waters. Animals occur alone or in small groups and can form surface-active social groups (NOAA Fisheries species account).