Antarctica: A Recovering Ecosystem Once the heart of the global whaling industry, Antarctica came dangerously close to losing its whales forever. By the mid-20th century, commercial whaling had killed more than 2 million whales in the Southern Ocean—pushing species like the blue whale and fin whale to the edge of extinction. But the ocean is resilient. Since the international whaling ban in 1986, whale populations have begun to slowly recover. Every breach, every song, every calf born is a sign