Blue Whale: Endangered Species

Blue Whale
On this endanger earth, there are numerous of endangered species. Blue whale are specified as the largest animal that lived on earth. It is one of the endanger species listed on the Wildlife Services website. Their size are around 82 to 105 feet long. To further discuss about this typical endangered species I will research and analyze on this paper.
Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is an endangered species, and it can be found in Alaska, California and Massachusetts. Blue whale is a marine mammal categorized as baleen whales. Blue whale’s phylogenetic identity has kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. Blue whale’s kingdom is Animalia, phylum is chrordata, class is mammalia, order is cetartiodactyla, family

is balaenopteridae and eschrichtiidae, and genus is balaenoptera. Blue whale closest relative is hippopotamus. In the past, blue whale can be found in all of the oceans. But now, there are three main regions such as North Atlantic, North Pacific and the Southern Hemisphere. Blue whale are distributed in the Sea of Cortez, Southern Ocean, California, Indian Ocean and Gulf of St. Lawrence. Blue whales usually live in cold temperate waters and also they are found in deeper ocean region. They usually live independently or with a small group. Blue whale are carnivores. The food chain of blue whale includes krill and phytoplankton, and blue whale is on the top of the food chain. Blue whale eats 40 million krill or any other shrimp-like euphausiids each day. The habitat of blue whales located in every ocean of the world. Sometimes, blue whales hunt individually, but they usually live in small group. It’s very common to see them with pair.
Blue whale mating period is in autumn until the end of winter and they mate once per two to three years. Blue whale pregnancy period are around eleven months, and the baby blue whale size is about 7 to 8m. After six months, the baby blue whales wean. When the baby blue whales reach to 15 m, they will leave their parents. Also, their sexual maturity are 5- 10 years. In the past, blue whale population numbers is about 250,000. But now, only 2000 whale is on the eastern side of the Pacific Ocean and few hundreds are found in the Antarctic, and about 4000 whales are in the earth. The current populations of blue whales are slightly increasing. There are many different factors that affect blue whales, such as chemical pollution, climate change, and or loss of cultural knowledge. However, one of the main factor that led to blue whale endangerment is because of whaling. Whaling has the largest effect towards the blue whales. In 1931, over 29,000 blue whales were killed in one season and over 360,000 blue whales were killed totally in Antarctic in 60 years. Not only whaling affecting the population of whale, the population of whales are not recovered.Commercial whaling has been a continuously issue, the International Whaling Commission was whaling in 1986, but whale are still being over hunted. According to the Whale and Dolphin Convention, it indicated that 45,168 whale have been killed and Japan has killed the most whales. It addressed that Japanese hunts small size whales and dolphins for commercial purposes. It shows that not only whaling affect the population of whales, but also other fact such as chemical pollution or climate change affect the population of whales as well.
In 1966, blue whales were so endangered that the International Whaling Commission announced to protect them all over the world.

On June 2nd, 1970, blue whale has been listed as an endangered and threatened specie. On background history of blue whales, Blue whales are considered very difficult to hunt by human because of their size and speed. People were hunting whales because whale blubber and oil provided a lot of profitable business during 1700s. Therefore, as the technology improves, people can easier to catch whales by using more equipments. From my research, the sources indicate that blue whales have no critical habitat designated, and also there are no conservation plan designated. The congress has passed the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and it provides a protection for endangered or threatened plant and animals. Therefore, there are recovery plan for blue whale published on July 1998. Conservation Management Plan is one of the recovery plans for the blue whales. This recovery plan gives a protection and supporting the recovery of blue whale, which is an endangered species. This recovery plan also includes the management of threatening processes for blue whales. Recovery plan is an action to protect the endangered species, and also finding and changing the species status. Safe harbor agreement (SHA) is a voluntary agreement which is owned by private or non-federal property. This agreement is try to contribute the species which is listed on the ESA.

They are responsible for almost every listed fish species on the ESA.
Federal government spent a lot of time and money for the endangered species. They provided a lot of recovery plan for those species. A lot of government programs benefit groups by taking budget from the taxpayer. For blue whales, they take about 350 billion which is a huge amount from the federal budget in 1981 to protect the blue whales. Legislation history
There are several stakeholders groups affected by the protection of blue whales. For instance, researchers were also studying in largest intelligent species like whales, and they tried to figure out something in whale that’s similar to our human. There were a significant amount of blue whales killed for research purpose, however, this kind of study was regulated after the protection of blue whales along with some other intelligent animals. Commercial fisheries were also affected by the protection of blue whales because whale meat consider as a commodity and also food source to human. By protecting blue whales, fisheries were no longer hunting whales which could harm their business and decrease their revenue. I have researched all my resources, however, it indicated political or social controversies that have arisen regarding to the protection of blue whales had not existed.
During the pre-whaling era, blue whales created tons of carbon that stored in both living whales and whale carcasses. Without nature predator, blue whales usually live for decades which are able to increase the total community biomass overall and also generate carbon after their carcasses sink in the bottom of the ocean. Our marine ecosystems have significant impact on the concentration of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere.Their bodies are perfect for storing massive carbon which keep carbon out of our atmosphere. However, total carbon removed after massive population of blue whales were wiped out. There were some effects found in some ecosystems, however, the results were complicated which might had long-term effect in the marine system. The increasing population of largest marine species like blue whale definitely will change the ability of oceans to sequester carbon which lead us to ocean iron fertilization. Blue whales help our atmosphere to reduce a large amount of carbon that used to store in their body and conserve resources in the ocean. The most likely result is increasing competitors which means smaller species are increasing its number. Unlike the carbon stored in trees, carbon stores in animal tissue must be maintained by feeding (Pershing AJ, Christensen LB, Record NR, Sherwood GD, Stetson PB). blue whale is also very important in nutrient cycling in the ocean. after they are dead, their body provides a lot of carbon for the environment. The larger it is the more it can provide. when the body fall into the deep sea, it can provide food for orgnism. Their faeces can provide organic carbon for smaller fish in the ocean. Also, blue whale can keep the food chain food in the ocean, so it can reduce the possibility of overpopulation of krill. Blue whale is a flagship species which means it can grab the attention from the public, so flagship can get better protection for their species from the public and also benefit the smaller species as well. Some fun facts are blue whales have emotions. Also, their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant. The whale symbolized emotions, peace and creativity. While in some culture, if one seen a whale swim, it symbolize a sign of good luck. They swim freely in the ocean, therefore it represent peacefulness as well. Lastly, whale are symbolized as creativity fit its energy and they use sonar and echolocation to response to outer environment feedback.
In my personal opinion, I think blue whale should be protected and it is worth it because blue whales have conservation value.

Blue whale can provide a nutrient environment in the ocean for the smaller species. In addition, blue whale can provide entertainment for us such as whale watching. It can increase the economy and teach children information about whales. Also, largest species like blue whales store massive carbon dioxide in their body that benefits our atmosphere. After 100 years, blue whales population will become all over the world since the population of blue whale has been

increasing.