Blue whales are making big comeback as fisherman, whale watchers, and scientists have all noted the population rebounding over the years.
Blue whales, the largest creatures ever to live on Planet Earth, are making a comeback off the coast of California.
Blue whales are making a big comeback
The blue whale???s enormous size made it an enormous target for whalers during the last century and globally their population was driven to the brink of extinction, but according to a recent study in the journal Marine Mammal Science by researchers at the University of Washington, there are 2,200 blue whales living in the Eastern Pacific, which they estimate to be 97 percent of their historic population. [Editor’s note: WAY more than the population of Whaletown, B.C., go figure.]
That Blue whales are making big comeback is not surprise. Fisherman, whale watchers, and scientists have all noted the population rebounding over the years, but whether they are fully recovered is another question. The researchers used historic whaling records to estimate the number of blues that once lived in the northeastern Pacific and compared them to current population estimates. The problem is, some experts doubt the accuracy of the old accounts and believe the historic populations may have been much larger. Others question the notion that the oceans carrying capacity ??? in this case, the number of whales that it can support ??? is static. Just because 2,200 was the right number for this area in 1900, should it still be today?