Royal Society Open Science

Published November 7, 2018  17:01 ET (Brief from the Royal Society)
North Atlantic right whales have been declining for about seven years and, at the specie’s peak, numbered less than 500 whales. Researchers show that, even when the numbers of whales were increasing, the death of adult females jeopardized the recovery, and that these deaths were caused primarily by people. Without the loss of adult females, the species’ numbers could have almost doubled.

Lead author: Dr Peter Corkeron, NOAA Fisheries – peter.corkeron@noaa.gov