Word: whaled
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Unlike the snail darter, which only a militant ecologist could love, whales are inherently irresistible. People crowd by the millions into aquariums and theme parks to watch belugas and killer whales go through their paces. Tens of thousands risk seasickness each year to join whale-watching cruises. Songs of the Humpback Whale, a record of cetacean squeals and groans first released in 1970, sold 100,000 copies that year and has remained a fixture in New Age record bins...
...object of adoration is another man's prey. Whaling began centuries ago, spurred by the human need for whale meat and oils. The development of efficient "factory ships" in the 1920s almost wiped out the leviathans, leading ultimately to formation of the IWC in 1946. The commission tried for more than three decades to protect selected species before it finally decided that a total ban on commercial whaling was necessary...
...general, the moratorium appears to be working. Most whale stocks are at least holding steady, and some have begun to recover. For example, populations of humpbacks off South Africa have grown substantially. A study by the National Marine Fisheries Service says there were an estimated 2,050 blue whales off California in 1991, up from several hundred in 1980. And California gray whales, which migrate 13,000 miles a year between Baja California and the Bering and Chukchi seas, have increased from several thousand to 25,000 since the 1940s; they were taken off the U.S. Endangered Species List late...
Scientists have such a tough time studying whales, however, that it is hard to say when a species is out of danger. Blue whales, for instance, live in deep water far away from coasts, making it impossible for census takers in boats or planes to get an accurate count. In the North Atlantic the U.S. Navy is helping biologists track blue, finback and minke whales by using submarine- detection systems that pick up whale sounds...
...Canadian section of the St. Lawrence River, flanked by both agriculture and industry, whale hunting stopped in the late 1940s. But the population of belugas there has hovered around 500 ever since. Antarctica's stock of blue whales, not hunted since 1966, also hovers at about 500; a half- century ago they were 500 times as numerous...