saving right whales, right now.

• Date: 22 June 2018

THE PROBLEM

North Atlantic right whales teeter on the brink of extinction. Hunters gave the iconic whale its name because it was the "right" whale to kill--docile, slow moving, and feeding close to the water's surface. From a precolonial population believed to be more than 20,000, right whales were hunted nearly to extinction by the early 1900s. When Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, right whales were one of the first species added to the "endangered" list--and they've stayed there ever since.

Now, North Atlantic right whales face another crisis of human making: Collisions with ships and entanglements in fishing gear. Today, the species is one of the most endangered in the world, with fewer than 450 whales remaining. The devastating loss of 17 whales last year alone--and no new calves reported born this year--has prompted a renewed urgency to save North Atlantic right...