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Humpback whale population slowly increasing [1]

Nuku'alofa, Tonga

Friday, June 13, 2014 - 16:48.  Updated on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 16:50.

Humpback whale, Vava'u, Tonga. Photo courtesy SPREP 2014.

Oceania's Humpback whale population is slowly recovering, according to an assessment by the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium (SPWRC).

They believe there are about 5,000 whales in the vast region, a 37% increase since 1966 when the Humpback whale population was close to extinction.

The Humpback population in Oceania is believed to have once numbered more than 14,000 and it is estimated that it will take at least another three decades before the population has fully recovered.

 “There may have been fewer than 40 mature females surviving in this vast region after the catastrophic programme of illegal Soviet whaling in the early 1960s,” stated Scott Baker, a Consortium member and Scientific Delegate to the International Whaling Commission.

The South Pacific Whale Research Consortium was formed 15 years ago by independent scientists to investigate the status of Humpback whales and other whale species in Oceania.

The consortium monitors the recovery of humpback whales. It assesses photo-identification records and genetic samples from more than 2,000 individual whales and tracks the migratory movements of Humpback whales from eastern Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Tonga, American Samoa and Samoa, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia.

environment [2]
conservation [3]
whales [4]
Humpback Whales [5]
South Pacific [6]
Tonga [7]
Tongan [8]
Vava'u whales [9]
South Pacific Whale Research Consortium [10]
Press Release [11]
Pacific Islands [12]

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Source URL:https://matangitonga.to/2014/06/13/humpback-whale-population-slowly-increasing

Links
[1] https://matangitonga.to/2014/06/13/humpback-whale-population-slowly-increasing [2] https://matangitonga.to/tag/environment?page=1 [3] https://matangitonga.to/tag/conservation?page=1 [4] https://matangitonga.to/tag/whales?page=1 [5] https://matangitonga.to/tag/humpback-whales?page=1 [6] https://matangitonga.to/tag/south-pacific?page=1 [7] https://matangitonga.to/tag/tonga?page=1 [8] https://matangitonga.to/tag/tongan?page=1 [9] https://matangitonga.to/tag/vavau-whales?page=1 [10] https://matangitonga.to/tag/south-pacific-whale-research-consortium?page=1 [11] https://matangitonga.to/tag/press-release?page=1 [12] https://matangitonga.to/topic/pacific-islands?page=1