The North Pacific right whale is a baleen whale of the North Pacific, with most contemporary sightings in the Sea of Okhotsk and Bering Sea.
It has a stocky black body with no dorsal fin. Rough raised patches mark its head, and its broad tail has a deep notch.
North Pacific right whales once occupied a broad ocean range, but whaling greatly reduced their numbers. NOAA’s 2024 five-year review retained the species as Endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In the eastern North Pacific, records remain sparse, and seasonal movements and breeding areas are still not fully known.
An unknown calving area is more than a blank on a map: it complicates decisions about where protection is most needed. The review calls for continued visual surveys from vessels and acoustic monitoring. Combining sightings with underwater sound records over time may help narrow down when and where whales pass. Keeping the legal listing distinct from the limits of current knowledge supports clearer conservation planning.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
NOAA’s 2024 review retained the Endangered classification under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. This is a U.S. legal listing, not a global assessment. Because calving areas and migration routes remain uncertain, the review recommends continued vessel and acoustic surveys.