One of the world's most endangered whales, the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), is on a path toward extinction due to collisions with ships and entanglements in fishing gear, according to Cornell University whale expert Christopher Clark.

A paper co-authored by Clark in the latest issue of the journal Science (July 22, 2005) urges emergency measures, such as reducing boat speeds, rerouting shipping lanes around the whales' migratory paths and modifying fishing techniques and gear.

Estimates indicate only 350 North Atlantic right whales remain, and deaths are exceeding births by less than 1 percent per year.

"We are not just at a precipice to extinction, in many ways we are actually over that precipice," said Clark, the I.P. Johnson Director of the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell.

North Atlantic right whales mostly live in heavily trafficked and fished coastal waters off the North American eastern seaboard, from Florida to Canada.