PHOTO OF THE DAY: Sighting of Rare North Atlantic Right Whale Caught Off Brevard County Coast
By Space Coast Daily // February 1, 2020
North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species
BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA BEACH, FLORIDA – A rare sighting of a North Atlantic Right Whale off the Brevard coast was caught by Studio ’78 Photography near the Cocoa Beach Pier on Friday.
The North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species, with only about 400 whales remaining.
Two other species of right whale exist in the world’s oceans: the North Pacific right whale, which is found in the Pacific Ocean, and the southern right whale, which is found in the southern hemisphere.
Right whales are baleen whales, feeding on shrimp-like krill and small fish by straining huge volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates, which act like a sieve.
By the early 1890s, commercial whalers had hunted right whales in the Atlantic to the brink of extinction. Whaling is no longer a threat, but human interactions still present the greatest danger to this species.
Entanglement in fishing gear and vessel strikes are among the leading causes of North Atlantic right whale mortality.
NOAA.gov contributed to this report.
CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS
