In the 20th century, about 3 million whales were killed, including 90 percent of many whale populations. It's thought to be the largest cull of any animal, by biomass, in history. The blue whale, the largest of all animals, was reduced to 0.1 percent of its population. The blue whale population numbered about 300,000 in Antartica in the 18th century. When hunting ceased in the 1980s, there were only about 350 left. In 1967, a US Navy Engineer named Frank Watlington in Bermuda made some recordings of whale sounds. Roger Payne, a scientist, heard these recordings and was overcome with awe. In 1970, Payne released an album called Songs of the Humpback Whale. It sold 125,00 copies and went multiplatinum. Payne and collaborator Scott McVay wrote a research paper in 1971 that identified whale vocalizations as songs. That same year, recordings of the songs were placed on the Voyager space probe and launched into space. In 1972, the US passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act, prohibiting the hunting of whales in US waters. In 1979, Payne convinced National Geographic to press a disc of whale songs, and 10.5 million of them were circulated with the magazine. This remains the largest single print order of any recording ever made. In 1982, the International Whaling Commmission declared a moratorium on commercial whaling. > Thanks to the efforts of Roger and his colleagues, and the millions of people who protested and forced nations to enshrine protections of whales into law, many populations of whales around the world today are rebounding and expanding. This is a counterpoint to the dangerous narrative of innate human destructiveness, which leads to apathy. It shows how we can change, and life can recover. > – Mustill, Tom. How to Speak Whale (p. 55). Grand Central Publishing. Kindle Edition. Source: [[Reference Notes/How to Speak Whale|How to Speak Whale]]