English: Endangered North Atlantic right whales are at heightened risk for vessel strikes because they spend a lot of time at or close to the water surface. Vessel strikes are a primary threat to the species.

Right whales can be very difficult to spot from a boat due to their dark color and lack of a dorsal fin. Poor weather and sea state or low light conditions can make spotting these whales nearly impossible.

This visualization illustrates the risk right whales face every day. It shows the migratory path of a 1-year-old right whale satellite-tagged off the Virginia/North Carolina coast in March 2021. The whale (red dot) traveled north along the Mid-Atlantic coast, overlapping with heavy vessel traffic (blue dots) and busy port entrances. In fact, the visualization shows only a portion of the actual vessel traffic—those vessels equipped with Automatic Identification Systems (AIS).