We’ve done the right whale wrong

A FEW decades ago, whale sightings were rare events.

Then, in 1968, an international moratorium on commercial whaling came into force and the populations began to recover. Nowadays, minke whales are common in Irish waters, fin whales and humpbacks are regularly recorded and migrating blue whales are seen further out. Some species have fared better than others, but protection seems to have benefited almost all of them. The fortunes of one great whale, however, have not improved; the right whale, once very common, remains critically endangered. There are thought to be just a few hundred left in the North Atlantic.

The whalers considered this the ‘right’ whale to catch, hence the name. A slow swimmer, it ventured close to land. Trusting and friendly, the right whale allowed boats to approach, making it an easy target for the harpooners. Carcasses often sank before whalers could retrieve them, but the right whale’s body contains so much oil that it always stayed afloat. A fully grown animal could yield up to 20 tonnes of oil. The quantities of baleen, used to make items such as corsets, were also prodigious; the right whale’s enormous mouth, so big that it can’t be closed completely, has up to 500 baleen plates.