By Michael Graham Richard, Source: Treehugger

While conservationists everywhere are trying to ban all whaling, and rogue countries like Japan are trying to find loopholes to keep killing the gentle giants, there are some success stories that deserve attention. A recent study found that California blue whales are doing well; their population is now back to about 2,200 individuals, or 97% of what it was estimated to be before whaling began.

“Whaling nations concentrated their hunting efforts on the colder waters of the Antarctic and until the practice was banned in 1966 some 346,000 of the animals were killed by harpoon. The numbers of blue whales caught in the Pacific was much lower, approximately 3,400 between 1905 and 1971. Much of this hunting was carried out by Russian fleets,” writes the BBC.

Read more: Treehugger