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Nature 424, 479 (31 July 2003) | doi:10.1038/424479a

Open Innovation Challenges

Whale genetics study leaves conservationists all at sea

Tom Clarke & Jonathan Knight

Conservationists fear that a study on whale populations, which seems to back the need for more restrictions on whaling, could ultimately undermine their cause.The analysis, published on 25 July, suggests that the population of humpback and fin whales before widespread whaling began in the nineteenth century was about 12 times larger than previously thought (J.