Environment

North Pacific right whales: Scientists find glimmer of hope

April 21, 2025April 21, 2025

By David Pendered

April 21 – New federal reports have found cause for optimism for the endangered eastern North Pacific right whale, described by NOAA Fisheries as “among the world’s rarest and most mysterious great whale populations.”

“I am very optimistic and hopeful about the future of these whales,” Dana Wright, NOAA Fisheries affiliate/University of WashingtonCooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies, said in a story posted in February by NOAA Fisheries.

Scientists are learning more about where the eastern North Pacific right whales live and eat. (Credit): International Whaling Commission via NOAA Fisheries

Wright’s optimism is based on new findings that indicate the whales have expanded their feeding grounds. The Bering Sea was the whales’ primary feeding ground in the Spring, but receding sea ice has affected their primary food source. Whales appear to have responded by enlarging their hunting grounds.

“Our results support the hypothesis that right whales are feeding outside of the Bering Sea in spring,” Wright said. ”That provides important information for management regarding their critical habitat.

“As loss of sea ice changes the food web, these whales seem to be moving around more. That movement includes feeding north of their currently defined critical habitat,” Wright said in the story.

Wright subsequently reported findings that support a theory that the whales migrate between the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska through the Aleutian Islands passes. These passes are major corridors for vessel traffic, according to a story NOAA posted in April.

From 30 to 50 eastern North Pacific right whale are thought to be alive. In comparison, NOAA reports that about 350 North Atlantic right whales survive, a creature that seems to garner more attention on the East Coast than North Pacific right whale.

Both creatures are endangered baleen whales, meaning they strain food from water through the sieve of their baleen plates. Both were hunted to near extinction by the whaling industry and now face threats from vessel strikes and entanglement in commercial fishing gear.