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
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