Even after years of recovery from decades of overhunting, humpbacks’ future remains far from secure
However, according to the new study, all of this—humpbacks’ recovery, their breeding ground migrations, the whale-watching industry—may be at risk from climate change.
where the nearest landmasses are California, which is more than 2,000 miles away, and Japan, nearly 4,000 miles distantIt is important to note that any changes to the breeding grounds would not be happening in isolation. Humpbacks, like other whales, are facing cumulative threats from ship strikes, fisheries,, and other human activities. If the temperature is increasing in their breeding areas, it will be doing so in their feeding grounds, as well, with potentially even more severe impacts.
“Humpback whale sightings in Hawaii and southeast Alaska dropped for a few years afterward, and to this day have not recovered to the numbers beforehand,” says Stack. “We don’t know if whales died off as a result of that or if they started going to different areas where we aren’t looking for them, or maybe a combination of those things.”