Unreliable sources misquotes source   Your source for the extirpation by whalers of the Atlantic gray whales is suspect Among the two sources it cites is Bryants  paper on Atlantic gray whale specimens Bryant p  right column merely speculates that whaling may have been the cause of its disappearance stating that This population of gray whales apparently disappeared during periods of active coastal whaling on both sides of the North Atlantic supporting the possibility my italics that whaling activities were responsible for or at least contributed to its extinction However these whaling activities as far as we know primarily targeted right whales as I stated above Earlier p  left column he asks Could the eastern North Atlantic gray whale have been extirpated by whaling activities Unfortunately early whaling activities off the coast of Europe are poorly documented This alone is enough to remove your inaccurate assumption but Ill watch as you scramble for countless secondary sources blindly repeating the same thing again and again Have fun with that