The U.S. government has agreed to a request from environmental groups to study increasingly important habitats for North Pacific right whales.The animals are among the rarest whales in the world.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries estimates there are about 30 North Pacific right whales left in the world.Centuries of hunting, ship strikes, and entrapment in fishing equipment have badly harmed the species.They have been listed as endangered since 1973.In 2008, NOAA declared two areas in the northern Pacific Ocean as critical habitats for the whales.One area is about 3,043 square kilometers in the Gulf of Alaska.The other is 91,841 square kilometers in the southeast Bering Sea.Two groups -- the Center for Biological Diversity and Save the North Pacific Right Whale -- are asking the agency to increase the protected areas by connecting them.NOAA said in a statement that this would increase the Bering Sea boundary west and south.
