Biological resources like that are exceptionally vulnerable because harvesting them reduces the rate of creation of replacement whales, in a vicious cycle.
But they have enormous stockpiles, compared to the biological resources. The upper 1 kilometer of the Earth's continental crust contains about 10^19 tonnes of cobalt. There is no similar stockpile of whales.
https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2011/05/peak-oil-thermo...
(With the exception that whales, if left alone, might eventually bounce back.)