Northern right whale Eubalaena glacialis

Size: About 16.2 meters (54 feet) in length, up to 60 tons

Features:  Rotund body, usually black with some light mottling and white patches on the chin and belly; large, rounded flippers. The right whale has no dorsal fin, the only baleen whale south of Arctic waters so distinguished.  Its enormous head - 25 percent of total body length - is distinguished by white callosities, patches of horny material growing in front of the blowholes, and by the absence of throat grooves.  An arching upper jaw accomodates long - up to 2.3-meter (7-foot)  - baleen.

The Northern Atlantic right whale is one of the most endangered species in the world, numbering only about 300 animals.  Its rarity results in part from the traits for which the whaling industry bestowed its name: It is a slow-moving, surface-feeding creature, and therefore easy to capture.  It further appealed to whalers because of its unique characteristic of floating to the surface when killed.  Finally, it was the "right" whale because of its tremendous yield of oil and whalebone.

Range: Summer feeding, nursery, and mating grounds extend from New England waters northward to the Bay of Fundy and the Scotian Shelf.  Winter calving grounds extend along southeastern U.S. coastal waters to Florida.

Food:  Small animal plankton, primarily copepods

Population:  About 300 animals (NMFS Stock Assessment Report, August 1997)

Humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae

Size: Up to 16.2 meters (about 54 feet) long, 30 to 40 tons

Features:  Robust body, mostly black or dark gray dorsally, white on throat grooves and undersides of flukes.  The hump that gives the whale its name features a dorsal fin that may vary in size and shape.  Long flippers - up to one-third of body length - slender and white, as well as long, distinctly patterned flukes, further distinguish the humpback.  The broad, flattened head features knobby protuberances and short-to-moderate baleen.

Along with the mating "songs" for which they have become known, acrobatic behaviors such as breaching, tail slapping, and dives that expose the identifying patterns of their flukes have brought humpbacks a measure of general recognition.

Range:  During spring, summer, and fall, humpbacks are common in the Gulf of Maine and north to Iceland; in winter, they migrate to the Caribbean.

Food:  Small schooling fish, including herring, young mackerel, sand lance, and krill

Population:  Estimated at 5,543 (NMFS Stock Assessment Report, August 1997)

Sperm Whale Physeter macrocephalus

Size:  Up to 13 meters (43 feet), 18 tons [female], and 18 meters (60 feet), 68 tons [male]

Features:  Large body, dark brownish-gray, with "corrugated" skin and dorsal hump followed by a series of bony knuckles; small, blunt flippers.  The sperm whale's massive head - one fourth to one third of total body length - is blunt and squarish, with the blowhole forward and to the left of the midline.  The huge snout projects over a narrow, underslung lower jaw that holds up to 30 pairs of large, conical teeth.

Familiar as the whale of Moby Dick legend, the now endangered sperm whale was targeted by the whaling industry for its spermaceti, a wax-like oil that fills the whale's head.   Spermaceti helps regulate the whale's buoyancy during dives that reach depths of 1,167 meters (3,500 feet) and last for periods as long as an hour.

Range: On the continental shelf edge and into mid-ocean regions east and northeast of Cape Hatteras in the winter, through the central mid-Atlantic bight into southern Georges Bank and the Northeast Channel region in the summer.

Additional information:

National Marine Fisheries Service

Wynne, Kate and Malia Schwartz.  (1999).  Guide to Marine Mammals & Turtles of the U.S. Atlantic & Gulf of Mexico.  Rhode Island Sea Grant.

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