https://blog.humanesociety.org/2021/04/u-s-finalizes-critical-habitat-protections-for-endangered-humpback-whales.html?credit=blog_em_042021_id12224&utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=humanenation

By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson

April 20, 20210Comments

For decades, even after whaling ceased, humpback whales have faced challenges to their survival, ranging from ship strikes to warming oceans and climate change.Photo by Stan Butler/NOAA44SHARES

The United States has finalized a rule to protect key ocean habitats used by endangered humpback whales as they migrate and feed in the waters off the U.S. west coast.

This is a tremendous development and one we hope will help speed the recovery of these iconic marine mammals who were once hunted to the brink of extinction for their oil and blubber. Two of the five “breeding stocks” of humpback whales in the world listed under the Endangered Species Act feed along the U.S. west coast where they are in danger of being struck by ships and face other potentially adverse impacts from commercial fisheries, including fatal entanglement…