Humpback Whales Are No Longer A Threatened Species
Humpback whales were recently taken off of Australia’s threatened species list after they noticed a steady increase in the population according to GoodNet.
Over the course of the past year, the humpback whale populations off Australia’s coast increased by 57%. These whales have been on the threatened species list in Australia since the 1950s.
The population nearly died out in the 1950s from illegal Soviet overfishing. However, since these creatures have been left alone for so long, their numbers have been making a steady increase.
Due to the populations now being higher, the whales are actually heard singing a lot less often. This is because the whales don’t actually need to sing for long before they find another of their kind. The songs that the whales sing are actually part of a mating ritual. Due to the humpback populations being so low, the whales would have to search for a long time and sing as loud as they could. These calls being lower and calmer is actually a good sign and shows that the ocean is finally recovering properly.
It’s not just humpback whales that have made a comeback recently. There has been a large population increase for orcas in America’s Pacific Northwest. Their populations also took a large hit in the 1950s. This was from harbor seals being hunted down, which depleted the Bigg’s killer whales’ food source.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972 and that is why the orca populations have made such a huge improvement. These whales used to be an extremely rare sighting, but now people are seeing them almost every day.
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