Saving Whales is Possible!

A conservation success on a literally “massive scale” has been highlighted today by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It seems that in the 40th year of the international hunting ban, the humpback whale is making a comeback.
Marine biologists estimate that the number of humpbacks worldwide may have grown to more than 40,000 adults and about 15,000 juveniles, prompting the revision of their classification from "vulnerable" to "of least concern" on the latest annual list of endangered animals.
This is a great conservation story and it serves to highlight the fact that we can do something about these problems. If we extend the same attention to other cetaceans (of which 10% are classified as endangered or critically endangered) then we can break the trend and bring some of these species back from the brink of extinction.
Smaller coastal and fresh water species, including the vaquita porpoise, finless porpoise, South American river dolphin and Irrawaddy dolphin, are increasingly at risk of disappearing and it is really up to us to ensure our oceans remain filled with these unique and important species.