In the late 1800s, whalers discovered that elephant seal blubber yielded extremely high-quality oil, and after these animals were hunted by the thousands for several decades, they were thought to be extinct until a small group was found on Guadalupe Island off the coast of Baja California. All northern elephant seals today are descended from that remnant population. Elephant seals populated this beach only recently: in 1990, biologists spotted over a dozen animals for the first time, in 1992 the first pup was born, and by 1996 more than 1,000 pups were born here. Today that number has quadrupled, and the total population of this colony is now more than 15,000. Since 1997, volunteers have played an important role in protecting these animals and educating visitors. In 1922, Mexico became the first government to protect elephant seals, followed by the United States, and today elephant seals are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.