Super Eco

Photo credit: nestor galina, flickr

Blue whales are back! Once hunted close to extinction, they're now being sighted off the coast of British Columbia and in the Gulf of Alaska, in territory thought to be a return to their abandoned decades-old migration route in the Pacific. The killing of blue whales, the largest species of whale and thought to be the largest mammal ever found on the planet, was banned in 1965 when their numbers had dwindled from some 200,000 worldwide to fewer than 12,000.

While the return of the blue whale to its old stomping grounds has been heralded by environmentalists, there are fears that the northward migration is a sign of warming waters caused by global climate change.

And then there's the hunting problem.

Japan, big on whaling, is in negotiation with other nations to create an agreement that will allow it to resume hunting the blue whale. South Korea says that if Japan gets to hunt whales, they want to as well, which could open global floodgates to widespread whaling despite the worldwide moratorium declared on hunting of all species of whales in 1986. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society says this new whaling threat is "dreadful and terrifying," and we can't disagree.