> The very biggest blue whales could reach near 200 tonnes, but that was before commercial whaling
"very biggest"? Doesn't "biggest" already cover very?
"near"? Wouldn't "nearly" be more grammatically correct.
"but that was before commercial whaling"? Wouldn't a more professional way of writing this be "until the advent of commercial whaling"
This all sounds like a speech of a tour guide being made towards children not a scientific article in the BBC.
Speaking of tour guide, the section bringing in the Natural History Museum was wild to me. Yes, the museum's whale skeleton is a beautiful sight for visitors to see, but "The London whale skeleton is a key resource for scientists worldwide" -> huh?? Blue Whales are far from extinct, why would scientists need to go to this one museum for skeletons, surely they can be found from other sources?
But really, I was on guard from the very beginning of the article that started with FIVE consecutive paragraphs made up of single sentences. What strange paragraph breaks, why not combine them into 2 or 3 max?