Bowhead and Pacific Right Whales
Whales and Whaling pictures

The Bowhead or Arctic Whale. Balaena mysticetus, L.
The Right Whale of the Pacific. Balaena japonica, Gray. (Eubalaena cullamach.)

The bowhead and right whales were the preferred catch by whalers for a long time up to the beginning of the 20th century. They had plenty of very long whalebone or baleen (up to 14 feet (4.2m) long in the bowhead), they had plenty of blubber, they were slow swimming and floated when killed so weren't lost and were easier to flense.