Happy Monday from this GIGANTIC blue whale!

These behemoths were once decimated by the whaling era as whalers often killed down the “whale chain.” Meaning they’d start with the largest whales (blues) and essentially decimate a population until it was nearly impossible to find an individual whale. They’d then move down to the next largest (fins) and so on. The end of the whaling era can be attributed to a number of effects. The movement, new technologies replacing the need for whale blubbers and oil, and the fact that it just got increasingly harder to find whales to hunt. With federal and international protections placed in the 70s and 80s whales have since made a remarkable recovery from the brink of extinction. Although their population of around 10,000-12,000 is much larger than their population after the whaling era, it’s no where close to the 350,000 estimated before the whaling era. Hopefully as populations continue to rise and these animals are further protected, we will see them slowly creep towards that higher number! 🐋