On September 6, 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US agency that manages and protects whale stocks, announced the removal of nine out of fourteen humpback whale populations from the US List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. Humpback whales were added to the list in 1970, after the species had been decimated by commercial whaling. The delisting of nine populations is testimony to the success of conservation efforts for several populations of humpbacks. However, five populations have been slow to recover and remain on the list: four are still considered endangered and one is now considered threatened. According to some researchers and environmental groups, there is still a long way to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data behind the humpback delisting is solid,\u201d points out Robert Pitman, a marine ecologist working for NOAA and recipient of an award from the National Geographic Society. \u201cThose of us who have been on the water with whales for the past thirty to forty years have been amazed at the recovery that we have seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although it may seem odd to delist only certain populations while other populations of the same species are still in a critical state, it is logical from a biological point of view, according to Marta Nammack, NOAA Fisheries\u2019 national Endangered Species Act listing coordinator. According to current estimates, there are believed to be slightly fewer than 100,000 humpbacks worldwide. However, each of the fourteen populations is considered genetically distinct. Some populations share the same feeding grounds, but then migrate to different regions for the breeding season.<\/p>\n
The findings from a status review of the humpback whale spearheaded in 2010 by NOAA Fisheries called for the division of this species into fourteen distinct populations. According to Eileen Sobeck, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries, tracking these populations independently \u201chelped NOAA adapt its approaches to protection according to the needs of each population.\u201d The map below shows the global distribution of these fourteen populations of humpbacks and their new status.<\/p>\n
This is not the first time that only some segments of a species are being removed from the endangered species list. For example, the Northeast Pacific sub-population of gray whales was delisted in 1994, but the Northwest Pacific sub-population is still considered endangered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On September 6, 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US agency that manages and protects whale stocks, announced the removal of nine out of fourteen humpback whale populations from the US List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. Humpback whales were added to the list in 1970, after the species had been decimated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":46455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n