PROVINCETOWN — Researchers with the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium have selected new names for 18 whales in an effort to better study the endangered species. While naming North Atlantic right whales has been a common practice by researchers for several years, the concept of formally naming whales got its start in Provincetown. In the 1970s, Charles “Stormy” Mayo, director of the right whale ecology program at the Center for Coastal Studies, was a young researcher who would lead whale watches as a naturalist to make money in his spare time. He was one of the founders of the Center For Coastal Studies, which was in its infancy.