Great Story from TIME about Humpback Whales’ Recovery

by Posted on
A humpback whale's tail.
The tail of a humpback whale. Humpback Whale Tail (Megaptera novaeangliae) by Gregory “Slobirdr” Smith. CC BY-SA 2.0

In my last post, I mentioned that humpback whales were a conservation success story. This article from TIME gives more details.

Written by Dr. Kirsten Thompson, the TIME article discusses humpback whales’ decline and recovery. It talks about how there used to be about 27,000 humpback whales in the 1830s, and how commercial whaling reduced those numbers to just 450 by the mid-1950s.

Fortunately, most commercial whaling was banned in 1986, although some countries found loopholes.

Thanks in large part to this ban, humpback whale populations have now almost fully recovered – especially in Antarctica, where Dr. Thompson has worked. This is good news for the entire planet.

Whales are important for many reasons, besides the fact that they’re awesome. Great whales like humpbacks store tons of carbon, and when they die their carbon remains in the deep sea, rather than being ejected into the atmosphere where it could contribute to climate change.

Thus, the recovery of great whale populations might help to slow climate change.

The humpback whale recovery also shows that the right policies can achieve amazing results. When countries come together for a common goal, like protecting whales, success is possible.

For this reason, Dr. Thompson ends her article by advocating for large-scale, international efforts to protect our oceans.

It’s no secret that the oceans – arguably the most important ecosystems on Earth – are facing dire challenges: pollution, overfishing, climate change, and more. However, Dr. Thompson writes that if we safeguard 30% of the oceans through well-designed protected areas, much of the life within them could recover “within our lifetimes.”

Be sure to read the original article for more information!

Published by Josh Gross

Wildlife, social science, conservation, and scicomm.

11 Thoughts

      1. Now if we could all get on the same page and respect our environment. My husband and I used to get upset when we’d climb a 14,000 foot peak and find litter on the trail. Most climbers tend to be environmentalist minded and yet, they seem to forget that once out. It never made sense to us. We had one friend that kept a separate bag to pick up stuff along the way. On one peak, the cans and litter seemed to be rusted and old and we wondered if it hadn’t been left by miners many, many years ago.(There are many mining towns still there, some abandoned. If it hadn’t been in a ravine, it would have been interesting to see if it was dated in any way or give us an idea of when it was left.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        1. Hi Jolie, I work at a park, and I often joke that it’s the largest ash tray in our county, given the amount of cigarette butts I find on the trails. However, even though our attendance has been off the charts during the lockdown, litter seems to be way down. If I were able I’d do a study to find out why :P

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply
  3. Pingback: Great Story from TIME about Humpback Whales’ Recovery — The Jaguar | huggers.ca

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.