There are probably under 1,000 of these whales left in our oceans. The most serious threats to these whales are vessel collisions and entanglement in fishing nets.
They inhabit the Western North Atlantic, as well as the Eastern North Atlantic and the North Pacific, where they are now extremely rare. Now the most endangered of the large whales, there is no evidence of recovery in Northern right whale populations.
In the Atlantic probably only 300 to 600 remain and perhaps under 500 in the North Pacific.