The Hopeful Recovery of the Endangered Blue Whale by Drew Fredrickson

By: Drew Fredrickson

The Blue Whale 

Source: bluewhales.org

The Blue Whale was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1998 on July 28. The recovery plan for the Blue Whale is currently in its final stage. 

Species Description and Ecology:

   The Blue Whale is the largest animal ever known to have lived on Earth. Adults in the Arctic have reached a maximum body length of about 33m & can weigh more than 150,000kg. They are long-bodied and slender and their skin is a lightly mottled blue-grey with light grey or yellow-white undersides.  http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/whale_blue.pdf

   Like many other baleen whales, it feeds in cool waters at high latitudes, and generally migrates to warmer temperate and tropical waters to breed and give birth, although in some areas it appears that the species may be resident year-round. 

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/about/blue_whale/  

FUN FACTS

• The blue whale's heartbeat can be detected from two miles away and its heart is the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. 
• Its stomach can hold one ton of krill and it needs to eat about four tons of krill each day.
•  It is identified by a relatively small dorsal fin, a fairly rounded rostrum (anterior part of the skull), and approximately 90 ventral grooves which reach the navel. 

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/about/blue_whale/

Source: https://milesandhisfavorites.wordpress.com/virtual-classroom/field-trip-adventure-two-under-the-ocean/

Geographic and Population Changes:

    The blue whale has a truly global distribution, occurring in the Arctic Sea, Atlantic Ocean , Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. In spite of their global distribution, they are one of the rarest of the whales, and most biologists consider them to be among the most endangered of the great whales. Only one population, in the eastern North Pacific off California, is showing real recovery and currently numbers about 2,000 animals.  http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/about/blue_whale/

Blue Whale Range
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale

  It is assumed that blue whale distribution is governed largely by food requirements and that populations are seasonally migratory.  Poleward movements in spring allow the whales to take advantage of high zooplankton production in summer. Movement toward the subtropics in the fall allows blue whales to reduce their energy expenditure while fasting, avoid ice entrapment in some areas, and engage in reproductive activities in warmer waters of lower latitudes.  Before the whaling industry went global, blue whale population included more than 270,000 individuals. Currently it is believed that about 10,000 blue whales are left in the world. http://www.bluewhales.org/category/blue-whales

Cause of Listing and Main Threats to Current Existence:

   From the turn of the century until the mid-1960’s, blue whales from various stocks were intensively hunted in all the world’s oceans, reducing the population to the point of being put on the Endangered Species List. Hunting, pollution and environmental degradation are considered to be the most important causes why blue whales are endangered. http://www.bluewhales.org/category/blue-whales
The official Recovery Plan created for the conservation of Blue Whales states the main threats to the species existence as:

• Vessel interactions: 
• 1) Collisions with ships: are occasionally injured or killed by ship collisions
•  2) Disturbance by vessels: there is concern that persistent close approaches by tour boats have a negative effect on the whales; under the Canadian Fisheries Act it is illegal to “disturb” whales.
• Entrapment and Entanglement in Fishing Gear:
• A few whales have been found to be killed from the effects of entanglement in fishing gear.
• Habitat degradation:
• Some of the areas used by blue whales have been degraded by acoustic and chemical pollution.
• Hunting:
• Deliberate killing has had a severe effect on the status of blue whales in the North Atlantic; at least 11,000 were taken from the late 19th to mid 20th century.

http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/whale_blue.pdf

 Recovery Plan:

  The key recommended actions of the proposed recovery program for the Blue Whale are to:

1) Determine population structure of blue whales, 

2) Estimate population size and monitor trends in abundance, 

3) Identify and protect essential habitats, 

4) Minimize or eliminate human-caused injury and mortality, 

5) Coordinate state, federal, and international actions to implement recovery efforts, 

6) Determine and minimize any detrimental effects of directed vessel and aircraft interactions, and 

7) Maximize efforts to acquire scientific information from dead, stranded, and entangled animals. 

The overall long-range goal of this Recovery Plan is to promote recovery of blue whale populations to levels where it will become appropriate to downcast them from endangered to threatened status, and to ultimately remove them from the list of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife under the ESA. 

http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/whale_blue.pdf



Want more information on the Blue Whale?
 Sources used:
http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/whale_blue.pdf
http://www.bluewhales.org/category/blue-whales

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/about/blue_whale/

EXTRAS: 

Go to http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/blue-whale-interactive/ to learn more about the Blue Whale through a fun interactive experience! 

Visit http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/blue-whale to learn how you can help save the Blue Whales and even adopt one!