The North Atlantic Right Whale: Disappearing Giants

A classic natural history now completely updated

The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is the most endangered large whale in the oceans today. Fewer than 400 are left in their breeding and feeding grounds, which extend from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico. Survivors of hundreds of years of commercial exploitation, the right whales we see in the ocean today are barometers for the plight of whales. For over 900 years, whalers hunted these animals almost out of existence. By 1935, when they were at last given international protection, some scientists suspected that there were fewer than 100 right whales left in the North Atlantic Ocean. Most thought the right whale was doomed to extinction.

North Atlantic Right Whale describes and illustrates an ongoing story of science and rediscovery, of survival and protection, and of research, without which we cannot hope to protect the right whale's habitat along 1,400 miles of the east coast of North America, from Nova Scotia to Florida.

This book also describes in great detail the history and current status of the species, from the reason for its name, to the way each individual can be recognized, the species' feeding and breeding habits, migration, and life in the wilderness of the Atlantic Ocean.

Dr. Scott Kraus has more than 40 years of field research on whales and dolphins. He has been a research scientist in Boston's New England Aquarium's Research Laboratory since 1980 and has published more than 110 papers on marine mammals.

Kenneth Mallory is a critically acclaimed author and former Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Programs at Boston's New England Aquarium. They both live in the Boston area.