A gray whale

A gray whale surfaces from the water at the Ojo de Liebre lagoon in Guerrero Negro, Mexico, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009. Ojo de Liebre lagoon is one of three primary breeding lagoons that the whales seek in the Baja California peninsula and is located 450 miles south the United States-Mexico international border. Hunted to the edge of extinction in the 1850's after the discovery of the calving lagoons, and again in the early 1900's with the introduction of floating factories, the gray whale was given full protection in 1947 by the International Whaling Commission. Since that time the eastern north Pacific gray whale population has made a remarkable recovery and now numbers between 19,000 and 23,000, probably close to their original population size

(AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)