Today, there are approximately 160,000 northern elephant seals. ... By 1988/1989, about 2,000 elephant seals came ashore at Año Nuevo, and the number of seals breeding and giving birth on the mainland is still increasing. During the 1994-95 breeding season, approximately 2,000 pups were born on the mainland. They have long since been removed from the endangered species list, though they are still protected in the U.S. by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. However, being reduced to such a minuscule breeding population a century ago caused problems for the species that persist today.