Blue whale in 1966: Protected then paused
[128] [more-blue-whale-28] In 1966, the field log for Blue whale is headed “Protected then paused.” The figure kept beside that heading is 82. It is a count or a date from the work, not a rank of the species’ worth. A zoo birthday card does not replace the log. NGO decade that made a giant a moral.
The largest animal whose 1966 IWC protection, 1982 moratorium and still-thin Antarctic recovery define a hunted giant. Are blue whales recovering like some humpbacks? Some Northern Hemisphere stocks look better. Antarctic blues remain far below pre-whaling. EN is still the honest card.
The IWC protected blue whales after the factory-ship years had already taken the Antarctic majority. Protection was a lock on an empty room in the south. Is the 1982 moratorium a blue-whale law? It is a commercial-whaling pause for many species. Blues were already protected; the moratorium is the political weather that kept factory ships from a sequel.
A blue whale eats tonnes of krill and returns nutrients in faecal plumes; a fall feeds the benthos. In this atlas that pump outranks most terrestrial carnivores except elephants and wolves. Payne whale-song fame is mostly humpback. Blue-whale acoustics (low-frequency pulses) are a later Navy-and-NOAA file.
Keep 1966, “Protected then paused,” and 82 together or the note on Blue whale stops being that year’s record.1966
Figures to keep
- Year of the note
- 1966
- Figure to keep
- 82
- Species
- Blue whale
- Line in the log
- Protected then paused
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