California blue whales, once nearly extinct, are back at historic levels

> Among other things, they calculated that there are currently about 2,200 California blue whales today — and that that's about 97 percent of the carrying capacity for the eastern North Pacific. It's a full recovery.

I wonder if that carrying capacity isn't lowered by years of human fishing as well - although based on the rest of the article it seems likely that the researchers did take the full historical context into account.

This point is specifically talked about in Moby Dick, although it's called "The Sulfur-Bottom Whale" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetology_of_Moby-Dick).

>Sulphur Bottom - Another retiring gentleman, with a brimstone belly, doubtless got by scraping along the Tartarian tiles in some of his profounder divings. He is seldom seen; at least I have never seen him except in the remoter southern seas, and then always at too great a distance to study his countenance. He is never chased; he would run away with rope-walks of line. Prodigies are told of him. Adieu, Sulphur Bottom! I can say nothing more that is true of ye, nor can the oldest Nantucketer.

Indeed. Prior to steam powered ships and harpoon guns, only the so called 'right whale' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_whale) was hunted by Western nations (by rowing out to them in small boats, sometimes from shore). The right whale is slow, and most importantly, most of them float after being killed.