Imagine that you\u2019re sailing along the east coast. You glance around at the ocean and see\u2026 Nothing. Nothing hints that the ocean around you is teeming with life. But if you are lucky and looking carefully, you might spot a swirl moving through the water, signaling that a North Atlantic right whale is swimming right below the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are extremely lucky, you might see this slow-swimming whale defy gravity and leap out of the water, landing back down with a huge splash. As a fraction of its 50-foot length is exposed, you might see the scars that show the entanglements and strikes it has suffered but survived. The ones that don\u2019t survive these clashes with humans sink to the bottom of the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North Atlantic right whales are one of our native whale species in the US Atlantic. They can travel vast distances, most live off the eastern US and Canada, but they have occasionally been found off the shores of Norway, the UK, and Spain. We don\u2019t know much about their daily lives, they are normally found alone or with a calf, but we believe that they chat to other whales over great distances. What we do know is that they are constantly dodging threats scattered about the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They used to be widespread before whaling and hunting reduced their numbers to a critical level. Today, there are fewer than 340 Right whales in the world. The main threats to their survival are accidental entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes. As they live in busy coastal waters, they are constantly at risk of getting entangled in active buoy lines, or fatally hit by a boat as they swim close to the surface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might not know this, but whales fight climate change every single day. How do they do it? It\u2019s not glamorous, but their poop fertilizes phytoplankton at the surface. This microscopic phytoplankton absorbs carbon from the atmosphere and produces oxygen. A lot of oxygen. In fact, half of the oxygen on earth is produced by phytoplankton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) works so hard to protect these gentle giants. As well as being beautiful and impressive animals, they are essential for our survival on this planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n