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Humpback Whale
Megaptera
novaeangliae
Humpback Whale
Conservation
The Humpback Whale is currently listed as
vulnerable according to the The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The historic population of the Humpback Whale was 125,000 but heavy and
relentless commercial whaling pushed the species to near extinction.
Since worldwide protection was issued in 1996 Humpback Whale numbers
have slowly risen to a world population estimated at between 8,000 to
10,000.
Extract from Reeves et al. (2003, pp. 36-37):
"Humpback Whales have a cosmopolitan distribution that generally
involves long migrations between high-latitude summer feeding grounds
and tropical breeding grounds (Clapham 2000). Although commercial
whaling seriously depleted all humpback stocks, the species has
demonstrated remarkable resilience and many of those stocks are
recovering (Clapham et al. 1999). As coastal and charismatic animals,
humpbacks are major tourist attractions in some areas. They are also the
subjects of numerous local population studies (e.g., Steiger and
Calambokidis 2000, Razafindrakoto et al. 2001) as well as basin-scale
research programs (Baker et al. 1998, Smith et al. 1999). Although they
are certainly vulnerable to ship collisions, entanglement in fishing
gear, and disturbance (even serious injury) from industrial noise,
humpbacks seem able to adapt, or at least tolerate, living in close
proximity to a considerable variety and amount of human activities. They
are actively hunted today only at Bequia, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. With growing humpback
populations, however, pressure to resume commercial whaling in at least
a few areas is likely to mount. The species was listed as Vulnerable
(under the 1996 categories and criteria) based on the fact that,
although most monitored stocks had shown evidence of fast recovery and
may have increased to more than 50% of their levels three generations
ago (1930s, assuming a 20-year generation time), they had not yet
attained 80% of those levels. Importantly, the large illegal kills by
Soviet factory ships in the Southern Hemisphere from the 1950s to the
early 1970s would have delayed recovery of southern stocks."
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