Two lucky schools will have the privilege of naming two of the world's last remaining 330 (+/- 15) Right Whales. The Naming of the Whales Celebration begins with a national drawing of two schools that are Guardians of two or more Right Whales. The students from the winning schools then choose the names. The names they have chosen are then released to the international media and from that time on, any scientist or research institution throughout the world studying these whales will use the names given by the students. With a life expectancy of 75-80 years these whales, hopefully, will be swimming the world's oceans when the student's who named them are grandparents.

The following whales will be named by students during
the 2000-2001 school year:
(click on pictures to enlarge)

Whale # 2710 This is a female born to a whale named Stumpy in 1997. Since then, she has had an exciting life. Both she and her mother came to the Bay of Fundy in 1997. She came back to the bay alone the following year. In July 1999, she was seen entangled in the Bay of Fundy. She was seen several times in August still entangled. During early September, a radio tag was implanted to aid in locating her for a disentanglement attempt. Disentanglement attempts were made and a satellite buoy was attached to the remaining entangled line in mid-September. The satellite buoy with line attached was found later floating in the bay. The whale was resighted this summer (2000) in the Bay of Fundy free of all entanglement. Whale # 1705 Whale #1705 is a well known female and is another daughter of Stumpy (who received her name because part of her tail is cut off) Whale #1705 was born in 1987 ten years before one of Stumpy's other daughters who is the other whale up for naming this year. Once weaned from her mother, she was seen on numerous occasions in various areas along the North American coast sometimes on her own, or in courtship groups. In the winter of 1996, she had her first calf at nine years of age. During her time in the calving grounds, she was satellite tagged by implanting a satellite transmitter into her blubber. This allowed researchers to monitor her use of the calving grounds and also document her northward migratory route to the northern feeding grounds. In 1997 #1705 was seen in the Bay of Fundy entangled in fishing gear. Fortunately the entanglement was not severe and she has since shed the gear. Most animals are not so fortunate and entanglements usually result in severe injury or death. #1705 has been seen this past summer (2000) in the Bay of Fundy busily feeding and looking healthy.