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Too Soon To Remove Humpback Whales From Endangered Species List?

Richard Fisher / Flickr
Richard Fisher / Flickr

Several species of humpback whales have been removed from the endangered species list.

This week, the National Marine Fisheries Servicereclassified humpback whale species into 14 different categories.  9 of those were removed from the list or reclassified as threatened and that includes species found in Hawaiian waters.

The agency had previously classified all humpback whales as a single population… saying they were all endangered.

Environmental experts say it shows how powerful and important the endangered species act is… but others feel it’s too early to make such a change.  Center for Biological Speciesattorney Kristen Monsell says whales still need the protection the act offers from fishing nets and ship strikes. 

An estimated 11,000 humpback whales breed in Hawaiian waters each winter and migrate to Alaska to feed during the summer.

Nick Yee’s passion for music developed at an early age, as he collected jazz and rock records pulled from dusty locations while growing up in both Southern California and Honolulu. In college he started DJing around Honolulu, playing Jazz and Bossa Nova sets at various lounges and clubs under the name dj mr.nick. He started to incorporate Downtempo, House and Breaks into his sets as his popularity grew, eventually getting DJ residences at different Chinatown locations. To this day, he is a fixture in the Honolulu underground club scene, where his live sets are famous for being able to link musical and cultural boundaries, starting mellow and building the audience into a frenzy while steering free of mainstream clichés.
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