It's with great pleasure that we can report a branch of the Save The Whale campaign that has worked.

In 2005, the Eastern Arctic Bowhead Whale was designated as "Threatened" under the   Species at Risk Act - after centuries of intensive whaling by British, Dutch and German whaling fleets, estimated numbers were as low as 5,000. This evaluation impacted the local Inuit populations by legally limiting their catch to one whale every 24 months.

Now it appears that this gloomy tally was wide of the mark. The official estimate is now that whale numbers are somewhere between 4,800 and 43,000 to a confidence of 95% - in short, the best estimate is for around 14,400. This is larger than the recorded 19th-century population of 11,000. In other words, it's likely that whale numbers have bounced back further than the level they originally existed at.

Why the revision? "Our current estimates are based on a greater level of effort, covering larger areas, as well as better techniques," says marine mammal biologist Larry Dueck. It's music to the ears of the Inuit, who have been protesting that whale numbers are underestimated since the restrictions were imposed on them, and seem likely to lobby for an expanded small-scale hunt.

Threatened? Guess again.