Right whales: Last rites?

Right whales were 'right' for nineteenth century whalers as they swam slowly, lived close to shore, floated when dead, and yielded plenty of oil, meat and whalebone. Unsurprisingly they were hunted to near-extinction. When commercial whaling stopped the population began to recover but it is again in decline—the current 300 individuals may even constitute functional extinction for the northern right whale. A new demographic analysis, combining population modelling with more than 10,000 sightings of individually recognized whales, points to increased mortality of mother whales as the cause of accelerated decline. But the data show that by preventing the death of only two female right whales per year, the population could be returned to stability.

Demography of the endangered North Atlantic right whale
MASAMI FUJIWARA & HAL CASWELL
Nature 414, 537-541 (29 November 2001)
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When one whale matters
PETER KAREIVA
North Atlantic right whales once faced extinction and are still under threat today. But the population decline could be halted if the lives of just a few females were spared each year.
Nature 414, 493-494 (29 November 2001)
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29 November 2001 table of contents