What it is
The North Atlantic right whale is a stocky baleen whale with callosities on the head. IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered. NOAA and the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, using the Pace/Linden capture-recapture model, estimated 384 whales (+10/−9) alive at the start of 2024. About 70 are reproductively active females. That is a slight rise from the late-2010s crash, not a recovered ocean.
Range
Calving off the southeastern United States; feeding in the Gulf of Maine, the Gulf of St Lawrence, and shifting northern grounds. Historically both sides of the North Atlantic; the eastern stock is effectively gone.
What happened
Basque and later Yankee whaling removed the easy coastal animals. Today the killers are fishing-gear entanglement and ship strikes. An Unusual Mortality Event has run since 2017. Eleven calves were logged in 2025, down from 20 in 2024.
When / status
Critically Endangered now. Low hundreds, few mothers.
Human role
Historical whaling, then ropes and hulls on a whale that feeds and calves near shipping lanes.
Sources
Linden 2025, NOAA TM NMFS-NE-338 (384 at start of 2024); NARWC 2025 report card; IUCN Red List (Eubalaena glacialis, CR).