The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium is seeking submissions of right whale names for 15 whales again this year. MRC plans to participate in this process and welcomes suggestions made by its volunteers. The nominating period will start on October 15th and will run through the morning of October 29th. Rules on naming include choosing something that's particular to the markings on the whale that will help make it identifiable in the field to researchers. Many names have been based on scars, callosity patterns, etc. Use other languages, mythology, astronomy, or other sciences to come up with ideas. For example, Aprhodite is named for a heart-shaped marking on top of her head. Boomerang has a boomerang-shaped mark on the underside of his tail. Get creative! Do NOT name whales after people or places. Please submit ideas to MRC at whales@mrcirl.org and we will incorporate them into our submissions to the Consortium for you. Thanks for your participation!
The following right whales are looking for names. To see their distinctive markings, go to the right whale catalog at http://rwcatalog.neaq.org/Terms.aspx and search by individual:
Right whale #s 1423, 1616, 1708, 2470, 3294, 3340, 3390, 3512, 3660, 3791, 3802, 3808, 3845, 4040, 4060. As we get more updated official rules, we'll post them.
