 It is estimated that the historic worldwide population numbered 1 @,@ 100 @,@ 000 before commercial sperm whaling began in the early eighteenth century . By 1880 it had declined by an estimated 29 percent . From that date until 1946 , the population appears to have partially recovered as whaling activity decreased , and after World War II , the whale population increases to 33 percent of the pre @-@ whaling population . Between 184 @,@ 000 and 236 @,@ 000 sperm whales were killed by the various whaling nations in the nineteenth century , while in the twentieth century , at least 770 @,@ 000 were taken , the majority between 1946 and 1980 . 
