What Happens When You Come Face to Face with a MASSIVE Blue Whale?

Learn about the biggest animal in the world, the magnificent blue whale! Discover the history of blue whales and why they are the largest animals on Earth.
The blue whale population in Antarctica was drastically reduced by commercial whaling, which started in the southern Atlantic Ocean in 1904. Despite legal protection through the International Whaling Commission in the 1960s, illegal hunting continued until 1972. From about 125,000 individuals in 1926, numbers were reduced to about 3,000 individuals in 2018, which classifies the species as “critically endangered” on the IUCN Red List.