Joe Roman, Dave Johnston, Meagan Dunphy-Daly and Andy recently published a paper in Trends in Ecology and Evolution on the recovery of some populations of marine mammals. Using elephant seals, gray seals and humpback whales as examples, we discuss the challenges facing managers when populations of these marine predators recover and recolonize their former ranges. In the paper we argue that we should celebrate these conservation success stories and plan for more in the future. We emphasize that this does not diminish the urgency with which we need to deal with critically endangered, small and declining populations, such as the vaquita. You can access the article here.
