Keep the Wild Alive - Saving Humpback Whales Demands International Effort

National Wildlife, June-July, 2000

Along both coasts of the United States, the mighty humpback whale is now making its annual migration north to summer feeding grounds located off Newfoundland and Labrador in the Atlantic and off Alaska in the Pacific.

Listed as endangered since 1970, the humpback now numbers fewer than 12,000 worldwide.

Because it also illustrates the difficulties of protecting species that live outside the human concept of national boundaries, the humpback is among the 25 endangered and threatened species highlighted in NWF's Keep the Wild Alive[ordinal indicator, feminine] campaign.

Not only does the whale cross international waters, but its habitat and food fish also are subject to pollution and overexploitation by other nations. Protected since 1986 by an international ban on whaling, humpbacks are still targets in some countries that ignore the ban.

Other whales are killed or injured by collisions with ships and boats, and many face food shortages because of overfishing and marine pollution. Noise from ships, aircraft, offshore oil rigs and other human activities is thought to interfere with the whales' ability to feed and breed.

While the nations of the world have made great strides in preventing direct killing of whales, they now face the greater challenge of controlling ocean pollution and development on land and sea that threaten the species' food and habitat.