Southern Right Whales have been well-studied on their wintering grounds, especially at Peninsula Valdés, Argentina, off the southern coast of Australia, and off South Africa. Researchers have used callosity patterns to identify individuals on these grounds, and have learned much about the Southern Right Whale's behaviour and reproduction. Calves are born from June to October with a peak in August after a 12-13 month gestation period (Best 1994). Females usually produce calves at 3-year intervals when these are successfully reared, but the interval can shorten to 2 years following perinatal loss of a calf, which often results in an apparent 5-year interval (Cooke et al. 2001, 2015; Leaper et al. 2006). In recent years off Argentina greater numbers of dead calves and a correspondingly greater number of documented two-year intervals have been observed (Rowntree et al. 2013, Sironi et al. 2016).

Where feeding occurs north of 40°S the diet consists mainly of copepods, south of 50°S mainly euphausiids (krill), and varying proportions of the two food items at intermediate latitudes (Tormosov et al. 1998).  Evidence from stable isotope analysis suggests that different individuals frequent different feeding grounds and that fidelity to feeding grounds is maternally directed (Morgana et al. 2014, Valenzuela et al. 2009).

Southern Right Whales have a circumpolar distribution in the Southern Hemisphere. The distribution in winter, at least of the breeding component of the population, is concentrated near coastlines in the northern part of the range. Major current breeding areas are off southern Australia, New Zealand (particularly Auckland Islands and Campbell Islands), Atlantic coast of South America (Argentina and Brazil), and southern Africa (South Africa and Namibia). Small numbers are also seen off central Chile, Peru, Tristan da Cunha, and the east coast of Madagascar (Rosenbaum et al. 2001). In summer, Right Whales are found mainly in latitudes 40-50°S (Ohsumi and Kasamatsu 1986) but also occur in the Antarctic as far south as 65°S (Bannister et al. 1999) and around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Nijs and Rowntree 2017). Movements of individuals between subantarctic waters in summer and winter calving grounds have been documented using photo-identification and satellite tracking (Bannister et al. 1999, Best et al. 1993, Pirzl et al. 2009, Zerbini et al. 2016, Nijs and Rowntree 2017).

The map shows where the species may occur based on oceanography. The species has not been recorded for all the states within the hypothetical range as shown on the map. States for which confirmed records of the species exist are included in the list of native range states.

All Right Whales have been legally protected from commercial hunting since the 1930s, but this has only been fully respected since the early 1970s when the presence of international observers discouraged illegal catching by Soviet fleets, and land stations in South America also stopped taking Right Whales

Protected areas with specific management measures aimed at protecting Right Whales in their nursery grounds include the Right Whale Environmental Protection Area (Area de Proteção Ambiental de Baleia Franca) off Catarina State in Brazil, the Golfo San José Provincial Marine Park (Parque Marino Golfo San José) in Argentina, and the Great Australian Bight Marine Park in South Australia. The IWC has endorsed Conservation Management Plans developed by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile for the southwest Atlantic population, and by Chile and Peru for the Critically Endangered subpopulation in the eastern South Pacific (see separate listing).

The species is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.