Conservation Status
Able to travel at speeds of up to 20 kilometres per hour, with tough hides, blue whales were beyond the reach of whalers until 1868,
when the introduction of steam engines, explosive harpoons, and air compressors (for inflating freshly killed whales, to keep them at the
surface) made them vulnerable to the industrial hunger for blubber and whalebone (baleen). The blubber was rendered for use in lighting,
fine soapmaking, and machine lubrication. Whalebone, the keratin plates balleen whales use to strain food out of the ocean, was
prized for corset stays, umbrella ribs, and carriage springs; applications where plastic or steel would now be used. For decades, the ocean
giants were hunted without restraint, and their numbers dwindled from an estimated 350,000 to 1000-2000. The blue whale hunt peaked in 1931,
with a take of over 29,000 animals. In 1966, the International Whaling Commission banned hunting of blue whales, and today their numbers are
estimated at 4,500. Blue whales are on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, and are listed as Endangered under the Canadian Species-at-Risk Act.
Whaling bans are helping populations to recover. A whale survey conducted by the Cascadia Research group off the coast of BC in the summer of 2007 counted more blue whales than have been seen in the area in the past half-century.
Read a report on blue whales from a whale survey conducted off the coast of BC in August 2007 by Cascadia Research.
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