Eubalaena australis

The southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) is a species of mysticetous cetacean of the Balaenidae family native to the Southern Hemisphere.

Description

Southern French Whale in Las Grutas

Their average length is 13 to 15 meters for the male and around 16 meters for the female. They are born measuring 3 to 5 meters from snout to tail. Its weight ranges from 40 tons (adult weight).

You can see calluses, which are raised areas of skin more than 18 cm thick approximately, with a horny consistency, located in different parts of the head. The distribution, size and shape of the calluses vary from one whale to another but do not change with growth. Functioning like fingerprints, they identify each animal for a lifetime. These callosities, developed in the fetal stage and dark gray in color, contain dense populations of small amphipod crustaceans called cyamids (Cyamidae, whale lice) and are sometimes interspersed with barnacles that make the calluses calluses appear white, yellow, orange, or light pink. Normally, they are distributed along the upper margin of the lower lip, mandible, dorsal surface of the face and over the eyes. The most important callus due to its size is the "bonnet", located at the tip of the snout.

Skeleton Southern French Whale

Inside its curved mouth, the upper jaw holds some 260 horny plates or beards originally called "baleen," from which the Spanish name of ballena is derived. These beards measure about 2.50 m long. When the whales feed, they serve as filters or strainers to retain their main food, krill.

Males have the largest sexual organs in the entire animal kingdom. Their testicles can weigh up to 525 kg each, with dimensions of 2 m x 78 cm (almost 1% of their body weight, 10 times larger than those of the blue whale), and their penis can reach a length of 2.7 m.

Scientists have related these proportions to the so-called sperm competition, present in this and other species.

Habitat

The southern right whale inhabits a wide range from 20° to 60° latitude in the South Pacific, South Atlantic, and South Indian Oceans.

The indiscriminate hunting of this specimen led it to be declared in danger of extinction. Since the 19th century, its original population has been reduced by up to 90%. Currently there are approximately 8000 copies. Although they are found in the southern hemisphere and pole, whales breed in warm waters during the winter. For this reason they meet in various parts of the world which are:

• Argentina (península Valdés)
• Australia
• Chile
• Uruguay
• Tristan of Acuña (British Overseas Dependence)
• New Zealand

Hunting

Because it is an animal that swims slowly and floats once killed (unlike other mammals) it is very easy to hunt, and added to the fact that its body yields the equivalent of 40 barrels of oil (7200 liters).

They only breed every three years, an average that harms their protection, which currently counts only about 10,000 individuals, of which 20% have been registered in the jurisdiction of Argentina.

Natural monument

On September 28, 1984, Law No. 23094 was enacted, declaring all right whales seen in Argentine jurisdictional waters a natural monument. This decision is based on the urgent need to grant him due protection. It breeds and nurses its young in southern waters. The province of Río Negro also declared it a provincial natural monument by law no. 4066 sanctioned on April 6, 2006 and the province of Santa Cruz by no. 2643 sanctioned on March 13, 2003. It is also a natural monument of Chile through Supreme Decree No. 230 sanctioned on June 20, 2008 along with all other cetaceans in the country.

The possibility of creating a sanctuary for the preservation of this species in the South Atlantic is stressed.