Hi, Sethren :
Quote from: Sethren on June 15, 2007, 12:57:16 AM
I hate talking about the worlds issues anyways. I'll just shut up next time.
What happened? I must have missed something...
C-A :
I'm not sure we are disagreeing - I think we're talking at cross purposes.
And you're right - some species populations have increased since commercial whaling was stopped. I don't think Bowheads are among those that have rebounded well, though - they're still pretty rare.
Here's an excerpt from wikipedia (that repository of all human knowledge, right or wrong) -
Breeding has been observed from March through August; conception is believed to occur primarily in March. Reproduction can begin when a whale is 10 to 15 years old. Females produce a calf once every 3 to 4 years, after a 13 to 14 month pregnancy
...
Commercial whaling, the principal cause of the population decline, has been discontinued. The population off Alaska has increased since commercial whaling ceased. Alaska Natives continue to kill small numbers of bowhead whales in subsistence hunts each year. This level of killing (25–40 animals annually) is not expected to affect the population's recovery. The bowhead whale population off Alaska's coast (also called the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort stock) appears to be recovering but remains at about 7,800 animals (1990), roughly 41 percent of the pre-whaling population. The status of the other bowhead populations is less well known. These stocks are thought to be very small, probably in the low hundreds, for a possible worldwide population of 8,000–9,200 individuals.
...
The bowhead is listed in Appendix I by CITES (that is, "threatened with extinction"). It is listed as endangered under the auspices of the United States' Endangered Species Act.