Humpback Whale

Photo By: Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory & The Dolphin Institute

cientists from Stanford University, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and other organizations are closing in on the answer to an important conservation question: how many humpback whales once existed in the North Atlantic? Building on previous genetic analyses to estimate the pre-whaling population of North Atlantic humpback whales, the research team has found that humpbacks used to exist in numbers of more than 100,000 individuals. The new, more accurate estimate is lower than previously calculated but still two to three times higher than pre-whaling estimates based on catch data from whaling records. Known for its distinctively long pectoral fins, acrobatics, and haunting songs, the humpback whale occurs in all the world’s oceans. Current estimates for humpback whale numbers are widely debated, but some have called for the level of their international protection to be dropped. The study appears in the recently published edition of Conservation Genetics. The authors include: Kristen Ruegg and Stephen Palumbi of Stanford University; Howard C. Rosenbaum of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the American Museum of Natural History; Eric C. Anderson of the National Marine Fisheries Service and University of California-Santa Cruz; Marcia Engel of the Instituto Baleia Jubarte/Humpback Whale Institute, Brazil; Anna Rothschild of AMNH’s Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics; and C. Scott Baker of Oregon State University.

> Related: More Pictures by Wildlife Conservation Society

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