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Article: New Study Revises Estimate of Early Whale Population, Could Affect Whaling.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
- July 29, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Glennda Chui, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jul. 29--A controversial new study suggests that certain whales were once 10 times more abundant than previously thought -- and that it could take up to a century before their numbers recover to a level that would allow commercial whaling.
The tally by researchers at Stanford and Harvard universities was made using powerful methods of genetic analysis that have become available only in the past few years.
In a nutshell, the method assumes that the more genetic variety exists in a species today, the more abundant it was in the past. Looking at genetic data ...