Little information is available about the habitats and ecology of North Atlantic Right Whales in European waters, with most of the following information relating to the well-researched western North Atlantic subpopulation. The species occupies a wide range of habitats, but shallow shelf habitats, including nearshore waters, appear to be preferred as both breeding and feeding areas (Hain et al. 2013, Sorochan et al. 2021). However, shelf habitats are also where most research has been carried out on the species. Their occurrence in deeper, oceanic regions has been evidenced by acoustic monitoring (Mellinger et al. 2011), some sightings (Sigurjónsson et al. 1991), and can also be inferred from photo-identification matches made on different sides of the Atlantic (e.g. Knowlton et al. 1992, Jacobsen et al. 2004). Recent modelling work indicated that sea surface temperature, net primary production, and mixed layer depth, were important predictors of feeding areas, whereas topographic features such as depth and slope were less important (Monsarrat et al. 2015).

Whaling data support seasonal migrations in European waters, with captures occurring during winter in Madeira (Brown 1986), winter and spring in the Bay of Biscay (Aguilar 1986), and peaking during June and July in Ireland, Scotland, and the Faroe Islands (Brown 1986). Whale catches on the Cintra Bay whaling ground occurred between November and April (Reeves and Mitchell 1986), supporting a winter and spring occurrence in the southernmost parts of the range.

Generally considered slow swimmers, tagged whales on the foraging grounds travelled at an average of 79 km day-1 (Baumgartner and Mate 2005). In the calving areas, mother-calf pairs had a median swim speed of only 26.4 km day^-1, and spent periods of several hours stationary in small areas (Baumgartner and Mate 2005).

North Atlantic Right Whales use skim-feeding to capture prey, swimming slowly forwards with their mouth open. Skimming can occur at the surface, but also at depth (Baumgartner et al. 2007); they are known to dive to at least 300 m (Baumgartner and Mate 2005) and observations of mud on their heads indicates that they often reach the seabed while diving in shallow feeding areas (Hamilton and Kraus 2019). They are considered specialist copepod feeders (particularly of Calanus finmarchicus) although they also take other small invertebrates including euphausiids and larval barnacles (Baumgartner et al. 2007, Pendleton et al. 2009, Sorochan et al. 2021). Whale distribution shifts within and across years, in response to variation in the abundance of prey, which is in turn linked to physical oceanography (Pendleton et al. 2009).

Conception is thought to occur between November and January, with peak calving during January (Krystan et al. 2018). Adult-calf pairs have been observed in Europe in January 1967 in Madeira, off Portugal in February 1995 (Martin and Walker 1997), and in the Canary Islands in January 1999 (Silva et al. 2012) and in December 2020, supporting a winter breeding period. Calves learn migration routes and feeding areas from their mothers before being weaned, generally by the end of their first year. In this way, site fidelity occurs to traditional feeding areas (Kennedy et al. in press).

Global
The North Atlantic Right Whale had a past distribution that included temperate and subpolar regions of the North Atlantic from North America to Europe, primarily between latitudes of 20 and 70ºN. Its southern distribution limits included winter calving grounds located off Florida and Georgia (including the northern Gulf of Mexico) in the western Atlantic (Kraus and Rolland 2007), and Golfo de Cintra (23°N) in Western Sahara in the eastern Atlantic where Right Whales were captured during the 1800s (Reeves and Mitchell 1986, Reeves 2001). Its northern limits comprised summer foraging areas in the Labrador Sea, southern Greenland, Iceland, and the Barents Sea (Kraus and Rolland 2007). Recent modelling indicated that a wide band of suitable summer foraging habitat exists across offshore, oceanic waters of the North Atlantic from North America to northern Norway, including Newfoundlands' Grand Banks, south and east of Greenland’s Cape Farewell, south of Iceland, north of the UK, and across the Norwegian Sea (Monsarrat et al. 2015).

European historical
Basque whalers captured North Atlantic Right Whales along the French and Spanish coasts of the Bay of Biscay from the 9th century, subsequently expanding into other regions including the English Channel, Iceland, Norway, and Greenland (Aguilar 1986, Reeves et al. 2007). Archaeological remains support right whaling also along the Portuguese coast during the 16th and 17th centuries (Teixeira et al. 2014). Targeted right whaling in those areas ceased by 1750, after coastal stocks were decimated and the species was declared commercially extinct (Aguilar 1986, Reeves and Mitchell 1986).

Intensive whaling from the mid-1800s to the 1920s at shore stations in Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Shetland Islands, the Hebrides, and Ireland, mostly caught only small numbers of Right Whales, although over 90 were landed in the Hebrides (Jonsgård 1977, Brown 1986, Reeves et al. 2007). Single Right Whales were also struck in Spain in 1901 and the Azores in 1914 (Brown 1986). Since then, only three North Atlantic Right Whales have been taken in Europe, captured in Madeira in 1959 (a cow-calf pair) and in 1967 (Jonsgård 1977, Brown 1986).

Archaeological remains indicate that the historic range of the species also included the Strait of Gibraltar and western Mediterranean (Rodrigues et al. 2018), and the southern North Sea (Camphuysen and Smeenk 2016). Two historical captures are documented from the Mediterranean, occurring off the coasts of Italy and Algiers (ACCOBAMS 2021).

European contemporary
Sightings in the eastern North Atlantic, including European waters, have been extremely scarce over the last century. Fewer than 30 records exist (including several of unconfirmed identification), of which most have occurred since the late 1980s. Records include confirmed sightings in the Canary Islands (Silva et al. 2012), Madeira (Brown 1986, Jacobsen et al. 2004), the Azores (Silva et al. 2012), Portugal (Martin and Walker 1997, Jacobsen et al. 2004), Spain (Aguilar 1981, Arcos and Mosquera 1993), France (Kennedy et al. in press), Norway (Jacobsen et al. 2004), and Iceland (Knowlton et al. 1992, Kennedy et al. in press). Occasional offshore sightings have been reported from European waters to the east and southeast of Greenland (Sigurjónsson et al. 1991, Kennedy et al. in press), and a number of acoustic detections have been recorded in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland (Mellinger et al. 2011). There are unconfirmed sightings from Sardinia in Italy (Notarbartolo di Sciara and Birkun 2010) and from the Netherlands (Camphuysen and Smeenk 2016), and several from both Ireland (O'Callaghan 2019) and the U.K. of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Evans 2020). Monsarrat et al. (2015) found that recent records outside of the main known summer grounds mostly corresponded with modelled areas of suitable habitat, concluding that such records might represent purposeful visits to suitable feeding areas rather than being extralimital.

A 1996 survey of Golfo de Cintra, a suspected calving ground of the eastern North Atlantic population, did not locate any Right Whales although the effort was limited by weather (Notarbartolo-di-Sciara et al. 1998).

Norway introduced total protection for Right Whales from Norwegian whaling in 1929 (Brown 1986). This was followed by worldwide protection from commercial whaling under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in 1935, the 1937 International Agreement for the Regulation of Whaling, and the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.

It is listed on Appendix I (endangered migratory species) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (Bonn Convention, 1979), and Appendix II (strictly protected species) of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention). It is included on Annex IV Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora (the Habitats Directive) as a species requiring strict protection across its entire natural range within the EU. It is listed in Appendix I (species threatened with extinction) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which prohibits international trade.

The North Atlantic Right Whale is included in Annex 1 of the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS), which was concluded under the auspices of the Bonn Convention. ACCOBAMS came into force in 2001 to conserve cetaceans in the Mediterranean and Strait of Gibraltar, and was extended in 2010 to include the Spanish and Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zones.

Recovery plans are in place in the western North Atlantic (US and Canada), aimed at implementing mitigation to reduce mortality due to vessel strikes and entanglements.