Northern right whale were hunted for 800 years well into the Twentieth Century and consequently are the most endangered of the large marine mammals. The whales are prized for oil and baleen, and got there common name because they were the ‘right’ whales for making a fortune as a whaler. They grow to 40 to 55 feet in length and weigh 25 to 25 tons. Right whales once ranged along the coasts from Labrador to Florida in the western Atlantic and from France to the northwest coast of Africa in the east, with an estimated total population of 10,000 to 50,000. There were similar populations at the same latitudes in all northern oceans, and separate populations of southern right whales on the other half of the globe. Fewer than 350 remain today in the Atlantic and about 3,000 world wide. Although they have been protected for three decades, their numbers do not seem to be increasing. Right whales live in coastal waters, and collisions with ships result in mortality as do interactions with fishing gear. Their naturally low rate of reproduction and small population also accounts for their failure to rebound.