Number Of Southern Right Whales Growing
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
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The
number of southern right whales, which migrate annually
between South Africa's southern coast and the southeast
Atlantic, is rising at a rate of 7 percent per year,
Reuters reported yesterday.
According
to an assessment made last year, 845 southern right
whales
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were
found
during a seven-day aerial survey along the southern coast
of South Africa, 169 more than the previous year.
"In
all of the southern hemisphere, there are estimated to be
9,000 to 10,000 right whales at the moment," said Peter
Best, a zoologist with the Mammal Research Institute at the
University of Pretoria in South Africa. "In the 1920s,
their numbers were down to as low as 300 by some estimates."
Right
whales were so named because they were seen as being the "right"
ones to kill by commercial whalers because they moved slowly
and floated to the surface easily when killed by harpoons.
They started to be officially protected in 1935, and since
then their number has been growing steadily (Ed Stoddard,
Reuters/Planet Ark, Oct. 20).
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