Richard Collins: Are we finally going to do right by the 'right whale'?

Slaughter for oil and baleen may have eased but there is a new threat... with the melting of Arctic ice, ship traffic is increasing and these slow-moving giants are being run down by ships

North Atlantic right whale mother and calf in waters near Wassaw Island, Georgia. File picture: Georgia Department of Natural Resources/NOAA Permit #20556 via AP)

A ‘right’ whale was seen recently in McSwynes Bay, County Donegal ( Irish Examiner, July 18, 2024), the first such sighting since 1911. There are recent records also from Norway and the Azores.

The fortunes of great whales have improved since the whaling moratorium was implemented in 1985: