Copepods: Right Whale Food

This magnified photo provides a close-up look at copepods—tiny crustaceans that right whales feed on. There are many species of copepods that live throughout the water column, from floating at the surface to buried at the bottom of the sea. They are very small so right whales need to eat a lot of them to get enough energy: scientist estimate that they eat more than 2,000 pounds of copepods and other tiny food each day! More about the right whale can be found in our Tale of a Whale featured story.