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Southern Right Whales

Humans named this species in relation to its usefulness to those at the top of the food chain. With its plentiful blubber, its slow shallow swimming and because, unlike the rorquals, the species floats when killed, what could be more right for the whalers?

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Information about Southern Right Whales

The extraordinary right whale is a baleen species that measures up to sixty feet in length and weighs up to 100 tons. It prefers copepods to krill. During feeding season, the right whale skims along the surface of the water with its mouth always open, using its 200 to 270 pairs of baleen plates to retain its prey. Its shallow dives last about twenty minutes before it resurfaces for ten minutes. The short v-shaped blow of the southern right helps visitors to identify the species on whale watching Argentina tours.

The right whale is blackish brown or dark gray. Its head comprises up to a quarter of its length and is adorned with white growths called callosities. These identifiable markings allow scientists to study individual whales at their summer feeding grounds or when they travel to Argentina. The species does not have a dorsal fin and the pleated throat grooves characteristic of the rorqual whales.

Beginning in May, southern right whales travel to Argentina Patagonia, Uruguay and Brazil for the winter and spring seasons, seeking quiet shallow waters in which to give birth. Here they remain until heading back out into polar waters to feed between October and December. Right whales breed every three to five years and have a gestation of twelve to thirteen months. Normally 200 whales are born each year off the Valdes Peninsula, a popular destination on Argentina tours. Calves are weaned after about a year.

Scientists estimate that as many as 150,000 right whales may have once inhabited the southern hemisphere, a population that has diminished to between 8,000 and 10,000 worldwide. Southern right whales are hunted by orcas and the great white sharks. The species’ life span is about fifty years. In addition to the threat posed by these predators, kelp gulls that nest along Argentina’s coast are causing problems for the species, though research has not yet determined exactly what effect the birds are having on the whales. When the whale comes close enough to the surface, the bird lands on it and breaks the skin, leaving lesions. Females and calves are especially vulnerable, spending much time diving to avoid the gulls. The gull population has increased over the last few years due to ample food supplies offered by growing garbage dumps.

Argentina named the southern right whale a national monument in 1984, a distinction usually conferred on places, not animals. The species has been internationally protected since 1935. A pigmy right whale also inhabits temperate waters above and below the Antarctic Convergence though is rarely seen during whale watching trips to Chile and Argentina. Little is known about the species except that it doesn’t act much like a whale. It has never been hunted or counted.

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