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| credit: Animal Planet |
NOAA scientists report that the Pacific humpback whale population is recovering. According to their paper in
Marine Mammal Science there are 1,000 more humpbacks in the North Pacific Ocean than previously estimated. That number is now pegged at 21,000 whales. When commercial whaling ended in 1966, only 1400 whales were estimated to survive. The SPLASH survey involved hundreds of scientists from several Pacific rim nations over a three year period in an attempt to make a systematic survey of the ocean's humpback population, its structure, and genetic makeup. Individual humpbacks are identified by photographic comparison of an animal's flukes in the northern feeding grounds and tropical breeding areas 3,000 miles away. Other whale species have yet to recover from centuries of hunting, such as the sperm, wright, and blue whales, but the singing humpbacks are doing all right according to researchers.
