'We’re watching them die': can right whales pull back from the brink?

Dedicated conservationists are striving to save the North Atlantic right whale - believed to be down to 400 individuals as ships and fishing gear take their toll

"You can't work on North Atlantic right whales and be a pessimist," Clay George tells me. He's a senior wildlife biologist and right whale specialist at Georgia's department of natural resources, and one of the only people in the south formally trained to disentangle a whale from fishing gear.

Right whales are known to spend most of their time near the surface of the water, feeding and socializing. This behavior leaves them vulnerable to boat strikes and entanglement in fishing lines, almost exclusively the cause of their deaths.