On April 1, U.S. government regulations will require gillnetters and lobster boats to avoid certain types of gear. The regulations will also place bans on fishing in some areas to protect the right whales. But conservationists argue there is still more that needs to be done to protect the right whale, known as the most endangered of the world's large whale species. There are no mandatory speed limits or other restrictions on ships when they enter known right whale areas. Programs to protect whales also receive less research money from Congress than programs to protect other animals, said Nina Young, a research scientist at the Center for Marine Conservation.
Females usually reproduce every five years.
Northern right whales have not rebounded strongly since the end of whaling. Researchers estimate there are fewer than 300 North Atlantic right whales left. The species are found as far south as Florida and as far north as Canada. In the study, Caswell and the other researchers used extensive photographic records from the New England Aquarium, identifying each whale by unique marks such as the white growths on their heads. But the way things are right now and the amount of money being allocated to the species, the Congress has pretty much made the decision to let a species go extinct.