What is being done to stop the Blue Whale becoming extinct?
Blue Whales were abundant in nearly all oceans until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over 40 years they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers until protected by the international community in 1966. A 2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 Blue Whales worldwide located in at least five groups. More recent research into the Pygmy subspecies suggests this may be an underestimate.Before whaling the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000).There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the North-East Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere.
