https://phys.org/news/2018-11-recovery-endangered-whales-hampered-humans.html > Once numbering in the tens of thousands, the northern whale's population—hovering around 450 today—climbed slowly from 1990, but began to drop again around 2010. > Had the Canadian and US waters they plied during that quarter of a century been pristine and uncluttered by human traffic, "the species' numbers would be almost double what they are now, and their current emergency wouldn't be so dire," scientists led by Peter Corkeron of the NOAA Northeastern Fisheries Science Center in Massachusetts reported.