April 22, 2015 — On Monday, federal officials proposed removing most of the world's humpback whales from the endangered species list, noting their recovery after 45 years of protection and restoration efforts is a remarkable achievement.
"To be able to bring a species to a point where their population is doing well and they no longer meet those requirements to be on the endangered species act, I think that is a really important success for us as a nation," said Donna Weiting, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's protected resources office.
"So I think it's quite a big deal," she said at a news conference.
The agency is proposing dividing humpback whale populations into 14 categories and removing 10 of them from the endangered list. Of the remaining four categories, two would be listed as threatened, and the other two would stay on the endangered list.
But just because the animal could be taken off the endangered list doesn't mean there soon will be hunting seasons again.
All the whales remain protected under the Marine Mammals Protection Act, and the United States is still an active member of the International Whaling Commission, which banned commercial whaling in 1966, said Angela Somma, chief of NOAA Fisheries' endangered species division.
Read the full story from the Associated Press here