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From right + whale, but the sense of right in the name is unknown. The commonly given etymology based on these whales being for various reasons the "right" whales to hunt (e.g. easy to hunt and docile) is questionable but highly plausible and therefore not necessarily a folk etymology, as Eric Jay Dolin writes in 2007 in his history of American whaling: The earliest references to the right whale offer no indication why it was called that, and some who have studied the issue point out that the word "right" in this context might just as likely be intended "to connote 'true' or 'proper,' meaning typical of the group." The scientific name of the whale's genus is Eubalaena, which means "good or true whales".
The previous night, they’d received a call from the federal Department of Oceans and Fisheries (DFO): a right whale was tangled up in crab trap lines near their location.
Right whale on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Balaena on Wikispecies.Wikispecies 
Category:Balaenidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons 
