May 9, 2014 — In the early 1960s, the situation seemed dire for humpback whales. A century of industrial hunting had reduced the North Pacific population to around 1,000, a minuscule fraction of historic levels. Extinction, once unthinkable, appeared not only possible, but likely.
Five decades after the International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on hunting in 1966, however, humpbacks have made a remarkable recovery. Over 60,000 of the bus-sized beasts now swim the world’s oceans, and the North Pacific population is up to 22,000. In U.S. waters, federal law has also helped rejuvenate humpbacks: The whale was among the first species protected by the Endangered Species Conservation Act – the Endangered Species Act’s predecessor – when it was passed in 1970, and it’s remained on the endangered species list since. Humpbacks are a genuine ESA success story, and a considerably more visible one than the Oregon chub.
The creature’s comeback also raises a tough question: Now that we’re not plunging harpoons into their backs, are humpbacks still endangered?
Last month, Canada answered that question in the negative, downlisting North Pacific humpbacks from “threatened” to “special concern.” The reclassification means that the government no longer has to protect critical whale habitat off the coast of British Columbia. While Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration has been no friend to conservation, many scientists agree that the health of the humpback population — now increasing by around 4 percent annually — indeed warrants delisting. “There are lots of times the government chooses to ignore science,” Canadian marine biologist Jane Watson told The Toronto Star, “but in the case of the humpback whale, the process worked extremely well.”