Blue whale in 1996: US ESA

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. A southern subspecies/form -- smaller, still EN, often confused in catch histories. In some coastal stocks (Sri Lanka, California) yes -- a recovery problem that 1966 did not imagine.

Why cultural impact below tiger and lion? Save the Whales was huge; lions and tigers still win flags and millennia of art. Scores are relative across 24, not a concert-poster contest. Blue whale is one of 24 types in this animals atlas. The pages treat it as a full system -- history, anatomy, operating principles, culture, icons, future pressure and market shape -- not a ranking of a best species.