Caption

World population graph of Blue Whales (Balaenoptera musculus).

Y-axis:

• Left axis shows world population estimate (the average is used when a range is given)
• Right axis shows the same values expressed as percentage of pre-whaling population

Data used

Based on data taken from animalinfo.org - Blue Whale and other sources.

(See below for expanded references)

Some data points were not used because I found them only after making the graph. Also (Animal World 1972) is a poor source, as it's an encyclopedia without citations.

References:

• Kemf & Phillips. 1994. Whales in the Wild. World Wildlife Fund, Gland, Switzerland.
• IUCN 1966 Red Data Book. Vol. 1 - Mammalia. International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Morges, Switzerland.
• Oryx 1964a. Whaling agreement hitch. Oryx 7:145.
• Burton & Pearson. 1987. Rare Mammals of the World. Stephen Greene Press, Lexington, MA, USA.
• Nowak & Paradiso. 1983. Walker's Mammals of the World, vols. 1 and 2. 4th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, USA.
• Klinowska, M. 1991. Dolphins, Porpoises and Whales of the World - The IUCN Red Data Book. IUCN. Gland, Switzerland.
• Pop 2002 = Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (2002) Assessment and Update Status Report on the Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus アーカイブされたコピー at the Wayback Machine Population size and trends, p5. (not used in this version of the graph)
• Animal World 1972 = Encyclopedia of the Animal World, 1972. p699 (not used in graph)

Notes

• Commercial exploitation of whales began in the 19th century.
• Average of estimates used rather than error bars.
• IUCN estimates may be only of mature individuals (need to check that).
• Prewhaling population may be a huge under-estimate. A recent study (2003) gives population estimates for fin and humpback whales far greater than those previously calculated for prewhaling populations. Similar studies have not yet been done for Blue Whales. (Roman, J and S.R. Palumbi. 2003. Whales Before Whaling in the North Atlantic. Science. 301: 508-510. PDF)

Tools

Made in OpenOffice Calc (v2.1), exported to SVG by first copying into Draw, and then practically recreated in Inkscape (v0.45). I don't recommend this way of making a graph.

Licensing

Image credit: Peter Halasz. (User:Pengo)

この著作物の著作権者である私は、この著作物における権利を放棄しパブリックドメインとします。これは全世界で適用されます。 一部の国では、これが法的に可能ではない場合があります。その場合は、次のように宣言します。 私は、あらゆる人に対して、法により必要とされている条件を除き、如何なる条件も課すことなく、あらゆる目的のためにこの著作物を使用する権利を与えます。

If you wish to give attribution, please attribute image to:

• Peter Halasz
• and/or, link to this image page: //commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Whale_population,_Pengo.svg

derivative works

このファイルの派生的著作物：

• Població de balenes blaves.svg
• Blue Whale population, Pengo-af.svg