The southern right whale is one of four species of right whales. Like all whales, right whales are mammals that swim in the ocean but breathe air at the surface. It is said that right whales got their name from whalers who considered them the “right” whales to hunt, because they were easy to kill and had body parts that were valuable. The scientific name of the southern right whale is Eubalaena australis.
Southern right whales are found in the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere. They usually live in sheltered bays, but in summer they can be found in the cold waters around Antarctica. Southern right whales visit the South African coast from May to November each year.
Southern right whales are mostly dark gray or black. They can be up to 60 feet (18 meters) long, and they weigh about 60 tons. The head is very large. It is about one-quarter of the length of the animal. The head has distinctive white calluses, which are home to colonies of parasites. Southern right whales have large amounts of fat called blubber that protects them from cold temperatures.
Southern right whales feed on tiny shrimplike animals called krill. They sift krill from the water with special plates in their mouths called baleen. Baleen has fine bristles (hairs) on one side. The prey are caught on the baleen bristles and then swallowed.
Southern right whales spray water through openings on their heads. They like to jump out of the sea and slap their tails on the water.
A female southern right whale has one calf every two to five years. After a one-year period of pregnancy, the female swims to the warm, shallow coastal waters of southern Africa, South America, or Australia to give birth. Southern right whales can probably live more than 50 years.
Their habit of swimming slowly and close to the shore made southern right whales easy for whalers to kill. People used the whale blubber to make fuel. They used the baleen, which is strong but flexible, as a material in many products. These whales were hunted so much that there are now fewer southern right whales than there were hundreds of years ago. However, the whales are now protected by almost all governments. Their numbers may be going up again.