Some big whales recovering since 1980s hunt ban

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - Some large whale species such as the humpback, minke and southern right whale are recovering from a threat of extinction, helped by curbs on hunts since the 1980s, the world's largest conservation network said on Tuesday.

A review of cetaceans -- about 80 types of whales, dolphins and porpoises -- showed almost a quarter were in danger, mostly small species. Entanglement in fishing gear was the main threat, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said.

"For the large whales the picture looks guardedly optimistic," Randall Reeves, chair of the cetacean specialist group of the IUCN, told Reuters of the assessment of marine mammals for the IUCN's "Red List" of endangered species.

"The large whales, the commercially important ones, have for the most part responded well under protection," he said. The IUCN groups governments, scientists and conservationists.

The world imposed a moratorium on all hunts in 1986 after many species were driven towards extinction by decades of exploitation for meat, oil and whalebone. Japan, Norway and Iceland still hunt minke whales, arguing they are plentiful.

The humpback whale, which grows up to 50 feet and is found in all the world's oceans, was moved to "least concern" from "vulnerable" in the new Red List.

The southern right whale, found in the southern hemisphere, and the common minke whale, living in the North Pacific and North Atlantic, were shifted down to the "least concern" category from the "lower risk" grouping.

ANTARCTICA