The North Pacific right whale (Eubalaena japonica) is a very large, robust baleen whale species that is now extremely rare and endangered. The Northeast Pacific subpopulation, which summers in the southeastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, may have no more than 50 animals. A western subpopulation that summers in the Sea of Okhotsk between the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island appears to number in the low hundreds of animals. Prior to commercial whaling in the North Pacific (i.e. pre-1835) the populations in the North Pacific probably were over 20,000 animals. The taking of right whales in commercial whaling has been prohibited by one or more international treaties since 1935. However, between 1962 and 1968, illegal Soviet whaling killed 529 right whales in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska as well as 132 right whales in the Sea Okhotsk.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature categorizes the species as "Endangered". However, it categorizes the Northeast Pacific subpopulation as "Critically Endangered". According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the North Pacific right whale is the most endangered whale on Earth.
Read more about North Pacific Right Whale: Taxonomy, Description, Threats
Famous quotes containing the words north, pacific and/or whale:
“So-called Western Civilization, as practised in half of Europe, some of Asia and a few parts of North America, is better than anything else available. Western civilization not only provides a bit of life, a pinch of liberty and the occasional pursuance of happiness, its also the only thing thats ever tried to. Our civilization is the first in history to show even the slightest concern for average, undistinguished, none-too-commendable people like us.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“Really, there is no infidelity, nowadays, so great as that which prays, and keeps the Sabbath, and rebuilds the churches. The sealer of the South Pacific preaches a truer doctrine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“And one rose in a tent of sea and gave
A darkening shudder; water fell away;
The whale stood shining, and then sank in spray.”
—Yvor Winters (19001968)