NOAA
The planet’s largest animal may be returning to prewhaling feeding grounds. This according to a new paper in Marine Mammal Science documenting the first known migration of blue whales from California to British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska since the end of commercial whaling (sort of) in 1965.
Researchers have seen blues whales off British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska 15 times since 1997. Four of the whales have been previously identified off the coast of California—proving at least some whales are pioneering a return to historical migration patterns.
Blue whales were severely overhunted during commercial whaling in the early 1900’s. The International Whaling Commission enacted a worldwide moratorium (sort of) on commercial whaling in 1966. Since then, blue whales off southern California have recovered slightly. Those farther north never have.
No one knows why the whales seem to be spreading northward now. But the ocean is changing and krill—the primary food of blue whales—might be shifting north too.
Blue whales are the largest animal ever to live on Earth, reaching 100 feet and perhaps 100 tons—far larger than any of the dinosaurs. They were hunted nearly to extinction globally and are still listed as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act and the IUCN Red List. The global population is estimated at only 5,000 to 12,000 animals today. Perhaps 2,000 of these live off the west coast of the US and Canada.
Too bad Japan, Iceland, Norway, Canada, Greenland, the US, Russia, the Faroe Islands, a few Caribbean island nations, and Indonesia still hunt whales in one way or another: bloodlust watered down with euphemism and anachronism gussied up as science.
