{"id":568,"date":"2009-03-18T17:26:12","date_gmt":"2009-03-18T21:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=568"},"modified":"2009-03-18T17:26:12","modified_gmt":"2009-03-18T21:26:12","slug":"born-at-the-right-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2009\/03\/18\/born-at-the-right-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Born at the right time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/03\/17\/science\/17whal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter img-fluid\" style=\"margin-top: 15px;margin-bottom: 15px\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2009\/03\/17\/science\/17whal_600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"405\" height=\"284\"><\/a>It\u2019s nice to have some good conservation news every once in awhile, even with caveats.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">North Atlantic right whales are one of the most endangered species on Earth. These mammals were dubbed by 18<sup>th<\/sup>-century whalers to be the \u201cright\u201d whales to catch because they\u2019re huge (up to 70 tons and 55 feet long), stay close to shore, move slowly and have large amounts of baleen and blubber, the latter of which yielded much oil and caused the whales to float when killed. The gentle giants were hunted to extinction around Europe and by 1900 only about 100 known whales remained around North America.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Now the whales\u2019 numbers have tripled, and currently 325 whales are known to NOAA scientists, each complete with its own nickname. A concerted effort of international laws and changes in seafaring practices has led to this comeback.\u00a0 It\u2019s been illegal to kill the whales since 1935, changes in shipping lanes and regulations on ship speeds have reduced collisions and U.S. gear restrictions have limited the number of whales getting caught in fishing lines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Researchers warn, however, that the whale is far from saved. Six whales have turned up entangled in fishing line this year, and estimated 80 to 85 percent of right whales bear a scar from a previous entanglement.\u00a0 Efforts to preserve the whales can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. But so far, no whales have died from entanglements this year, and the researchers remain optimistic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Read the excellent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/03\/17\/science\/17whal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">feature article<\/a> in this week\u2019s New York Times that chronicles, as they call it, The Fall and Rise of the Right Whale. The article is complete with breathtaking video footage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888\">Photo courtesy Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission\/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s nice to have some good conservation news every once in awhile, even with caveats. North Atlantic right whales are one of the most endangered species on Earth. These mammals were dubbed by 18th-century whalers to be the \u201cright\u201d whales to catch because they\u2019re huge (up to 70 tons and 55 feet long), stay close to shore, move slowly and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,48],"tags":[7,170,37],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecology-in-policy","category-ecology-and-society","tag-conservation","tag-marine-biology","tag-whales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}