The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is the most
endangered large whale in the oceans today. Fewer than 350 are left in
their breeding and feeding grounds, which extend from Nova Scotia to the
Gulf of Mexico. Survivors of hundreds of years of commercial
exploitation, the right whales we see in the ocean today are barometers
for the plight of whales in the 21st century. For over 900 years,
beginning about a.d. 1000, whalers from Europe and the Americas hunted
North Atlantic right whales almost out of existence. By 1935, when they
were at last given international protection as an endangered species,
some scientists suspected that there were fewer than 100 right whales
left in the North Atlantic Ocean. Most thought the right whale was
doomed to extinction. Disappearing Giants: The North Atlantic Right
Whale describes and illustrates an ongoing story of science and
rediscovery, of survival and protection, and of research, without which
we cannot hope to protect the right whale's habitat along 1,400 miles of
the east coast of North America, from Nova Scotia to Florida.
Disappearing Giants: The North Atlantic Right Whale also describes in
great detail the history and current status of the species, from the
reason for its name, to the way each individual can be recognized, the
species' feeding and breeding habits, migration, and life in the
wilderness of the Atlantic Ocean. Scott Kraus is the director of
research and Kenneth Mallory is the editor-in-chief of the publishing
program at the New England Aquarium. Between them they have published
books and numerous scientific papers as well as children's books, one of
which they wrote together, Search for the Right Whale, published in
1992.
