- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researchers have announced that they have documented vocalisations made by eastern North Pacific right whales (Eubalaena japonica) in the Bering Sea. It is the first confirmed “song” from any right whale population.
- Right whales are known make gunshot sounds. The newly-recorded noise sounded like a song because of the timing in between gunshots and the number of gunshots.
- North Pacific right whales are the rarest of all large whale species and among the rarest of all marine mammal species.
- North Pacific right whales are baleen whales. These whales feed by straining huge volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates that trap shrimp-like krill and small fish.
- They are found in temperate and sub-arctic waters in the Pacific Ocean between 20 and 60 degrees latitude. They range from Japan and Russia in the west to Alaska and the west coast of North America in the east.
- North Pacific Right Whale Northeast Pacific Subpopulation is listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List.
First “song” recorded from rare, lovelorn, right whale off Alaska
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