From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000--


The right whale stuff

While Japan was killing whales, Brazilian president Fernando
Henrique Cardoso on September 19 designated an offshore sanctuary for
southern Atlantic right whales in their "nursery" along the lower coast of
Santa Catarina state.
The decree rewarded 20 years of work by Southern Right Whale
Project founder Jose Truda Palazzo Jr., who at age 18 rediscovered the
whales after they were believed to have been hunted to extinction.
Although southern right whales were protected by global treaty in 1935,
Brazil continued killing them until 1973.
Seeking funding for a proposed National Right Whale Conservation
Center since 1997, Jose Truda Palazzo Jr. and the Cardoso government
expect the Santa Catarina region to become one of the world's premier
whale-watching locations.
Southern right whales were also considered extinct in New Zealand
waters, but were rediscovered off the Auckland Islands in 1997. DNA
testing confirmed that the Auckland Islands whales are distinct from any
other known living pods.