World's whaling slaughter tallied

摘要

The first global estimate of the number of whales killed by industrial harvesting last century reveals that nearly 3 million cetaceans were wiped out in what may have been the largest cull of any animal - in terms of total biomass - in human history. The devastation wrought on whales by twentieth-century hunting is well documented. By some estimates, sperm whales have been driven down to one-third of their pre-whaling population, and blue whales have been depleted by up to 90%. Although some populations, such as minke whales, have largely recovered, others - including the North Atlantic right whale and the Antarctic blue whale - now hover on the brink of extinction.