The North Pacific Right Whale is one of the rarest large whales in the world, with an eastern Pacific population estimated at fewer than 30 individuals. Heavily hunted in the 19th and 20th centuries—including illegal Soviet whaling—its numbers have not recovered. The species is identified by callosities (rough patches of white barnacle tissue) on its head that form individually unique patterns.
Habitat
Subarctic North Pacific and Bering Sea shelf waters
Diet
Copepods and small zooplankton
How common
Very rare
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