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What swims, holds l20 barrels of oil, and has a tongue that weighs as much as an elephant? A blue whale of course. These amazing creatures once reached a population of 400,000 until hunting excess caused the population to sink down to 5,000 in the 1960s. Even with a hunting ban put in place, their numbers have continued to stay the same throughout the past 50 years. Surprisingly though, they are beginning to come back to their old feeding grounds.
In this article, some scientists think that this occurrence is due to competition for food where they are currently located, while others think that a change in ocean currents have changed the krill concentrations – a major food source for blue whales. Both of these possibilities would cause the whales to move elsewhere and therefore head back to old migratory and feeding grounds. Hopefully, if the hunting ban continues to be in place and the going back to old feeding/migratory grounds proves beneficial – the blue whale population will be back on the rise.
How else do you think we could aid in the blue whale population rebound? Or should we? How will returning back to old grounds help the population rise?
These whales are HUGE! I read the article you got this information from. The scientist say that the whales returning to their old feeding grounds may indicate that the species is on the rise. They have not been in these areas for the last 6 decades! Research shows that the whale population may be growing at 6% a year, which is good. We need to cut down on the killing of these big blue whales. Maybe there will be more food in these areas and they can have a better habitat to live in. I hope the blue whales population returns to its normal numbers in the years to come. They are awesome creatures.