Humpback Whale on Comeback?

GENEVA (AP) — The humpback whale, nearly hunted into extinction four decades ago, is now on the "road to recovery" and is no longer considered at high risk of extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said Tuesday.

Each year the IUCN produces a Red List of threatened species — also upgraded the status of the southern "right" whale from vulnerable.

The humpback whale population dropped to the "low thousands" when it was finally banned from commercial hunts in 1966. Its numbers have since risen to at least 60,000. The population is growing at a healthy rate of 5 percent each year in the North Pacific.

The Red List includes around 41,000 species and subspecies around the globe. IUCN, which is made up of more than 1,000 government and non-governmental organizations, says it has almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries.