VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 14 (UPI) -- Blue whales, the largest animals ever to have lived on Earth and now one of the rarest, have reappeared off the western coast of Canada.
Scientists say that the whales may have come back because krill, the microscopic shrimp they eat, has become less common in California waters, The Vancouver Province reported. Blue whales were hunted in British Columbia as recently as the 1960s.
John Calambokidis, a whale researcher in Washington State and co-author of an article on the blue whales for Marine Mammal Science Journal, said that the whales off Canada appear to be the same individuals tracked off California.
"It's kind of a good news, bad news story," he said. "The return of blue whales to B.C. is an encouraging sign, but the concern is that the feeding conditions are not as good off California as it was in the 1990s."
Blue whales grow to be more than 100 feet long with a weight of 190 tons. About 10,000 are believed to remain worldwide including 2,000 in the Pacific off the west coast of North America.
Whale sightings are unusual because they tend to remain in deep water far from shore.
