Good News for the Right Whale

This article was originally posted on Earth Talk

This has been a boom year for right whale births, with a record number of calves being documented by marine biologists. The success of the return of the right whale is one of environmental conservation's most inspiring stories.

Until the 1930s, right whales were hunted mercilessly by whalers. Whalers gave it its name; it was the "right whale" to hunt because it was more likely to float to the surface when killed. (So much more convenient than those irksome whale species which sank when dead.) Furthermore, right whales frequently swim near shore, and were relatively slow swimmers, all of which made them far easier to catch.

The right whale was first hunted by Basque whalers, who began commercially hunting the whale in the 11th century. Basque whaling continued into the 19th century, but was supplanted in numbers by the "Yankee whalers" from Nantucket and Cape Cod. The Yankee whalers first destroyed the North Atlantic population of right whales, then moved on to the South Atlantic populations. In 1937 the League of Nations declared a worldwide ban on hunting right whales. At the time, few people believed that it would make a difference - it was thought that the population had been so greatly reduced that it was effectively extinct.

Although the right whale population began to slowly rebound, many whales were still being killed by fishing net entanglement and boat strikes. However, efforts to shift shipping lanes slightly and impose speed restrictions have proved to be both helpful to the whales, and have only a minimal impact on shipping companies. Researchers are also seeking restrictions on fishing gear, and have developed better techniques for freeing entangled whales.

According to Tony LaCasse, spokesman for the New England Aquarium, among other hopeful facts, "last year, probably for the first time since the 1600s, not one North Atlantic right whale died at human hands."