Southern Right whales were the 'right' whales to kill

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We did a spectacular boat tour while near Port Arthur on the east coast of Tasmania. We were lucky enough to come across some whales which were on migration. The notices in the area stated that the southern right whale was once the most abundant of all whales along the southern coast of Australia and NZ. Southern right whales got their name for being the ‘right’ whale to catch. Their preference for shallow inshore waters during winter, and their slow swimming speed, made them relatively easy to hunt, and most importantly they floated when dead. Hunting was conducted from oared whaleboats with hand harpoons and lances. The southern right whales were hunted for their oil and for their baleen plates which were used in the manufacture of women’s corset stays. The upper jaw is narrow and highly arched to accommodate over 250 baleen plates which are up to three metres long. That sounds like a lot of corset stays. They grow up to 18 metres and weigh about 100 tonnes and females are slightly larger than males. They are about half the length of the blue whale. During the 1800s, hunting in Australasian waters killed more that 12,000 southern right whales. It remains critically endangered. In 2001, there was an estimated population of 900-1200 southern right whales in Australian waters.