I was happy to read this today. From the Weather Network:
So far this year, Mexican authorities have counted 1,198 whale calves and 523 adults, a steep rise from the 599 counted in 2011 and the 183 counted in 2010.
The whale count is the highest it has been since 1996, when a total of 2,721 gray whales were counted by environmental authorities.
Between 2007 and February 2012, the government estimates that approximately 3,553 gray whales were born in Mexican waters. The whales breed in Hare’s Eye Lagoon on Mexico’s Pacific Coast off Baja California Sur.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources said that the rising grey whale population is due to the availability of food and improving water temperature.
Mexican Environment and Natural Resources Minister Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada (keh-SAH-dah) said that the growing whale population is also the product of 20 years of Mexican environmental policy that benefits whales in the entire eastern Pacific.
Finally, some good news! Until the whales evolve to grow legs and fangs and decide to eat us alive. Ah, c’est la vie.
