The State - News from April 12, 1985

The California gray whale may soon be leaving the ranks of seven other species of whales that occupy spaces on the federal endangered species list, government officials said. Howard Braham, director of the U.S. National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, reported that a recent census of gray whales suggests that the species has recovered from the commercial whaling days of the 19th Century. Braham said the species now numbers between 16,000 and 18,000, qualifying it as a “threatened” rather than endangered species. Listing in the threatened category will provide the same protection to the whale as was provided under the endangered species category.