Optimism and hope in conservation biology are supported by examples of endangered species recovery, such as the population growth observed in humpback whales in several of the world׳s oceans.
Taz Wildlife Watching is one of the most popular outfits in Glacier Bay, with a 75% success rate in spotting Humpback Whales in their feeding ground.
Say whales, and you may think of Moby Dick or gray whales along the California coast or even humpbacks in Hawaii.
While the humpbacks in the sanctuary, started in 1992, are better protected than they once were, there's room for improvement, researchers suggest.
Gotham Whale counted 29 whales, all humpbacks, in New York waters from the start of the feeding season in the spring to the end of July 2014, compared with 43 for the whole 2013 season, 25 in 2012 and five in 2011.
Whale watching vessels range from small, rigid-bottomed inflatables used to see orcas in the Pacific Northwest, humpbacks in Hawaii or belugas and blue whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off the Saguenay River in Quebec, to large boats like the high-speed catamarans that take as many as 200 whale watchers out in New England.
The threat is real: just last year Japan threatened to kill 50 humpbacks (in addition to over 900 minke whales and 50 endangered fin whales) in the Southern Ocean sanctuary in the waters around Antarctica – defying both the global moratorium on commercial whaling and the existence of an internationally recognised whale sanctuary.
(According to IWC data, the take has come close to those numbers only once: in 2005, when Japan harvested 866 whales in the Southern Ocean. Japan has also refrained from taking humpbacks in response to IWC pressure).
Researchers determined the whales' current population numbers by comparing photographic shots of humpbacks in their North Pacific feeding grounds (around the Pacific Rim from California to Kamchatka) to images taken of the whales in their southern, tropical breeding areas some as far as 3000 miles away.
Japan had planned to kill 50 humpbacks in the 2007/08 season under its JARPA II research program, starting in November 2007.
