50 Aniversario de Relaciones Diplomáticas México-Corea, Emisión Conjunta Ballena Gris - January 26, 2012

The year 2012 celebrates the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Mexico. During the epoch of immigration to Mexico by Korean people, which started in 1905 and has passed the century mark and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries which has passed half a century, the two countries have consolidated solid cooperative relations through active exchanges in various areas such as the economy, culture, education, etc. To commemorate this meaningful 50th anniversary, Korea Post and its Mexican counterpart are issuing a joint stamp featuring "the gray whale."

Unlike other whales, only two different populations of the gray whale, which are on the brink of extinction across the world, were reported: the West Pacific population that migrates between the Sea of Okhotsk and Korea’s East Sea and the East Pacific population that journey between Alaska and Mexico. The West Pacific gray whale was first reported to the academic circle in 1912 by Loy Andrew, the American explorer, under the name of “Korean gray whale.” Due to overhunting, they are now endangered, and currently it is reported that only 130 of the species are living in the sea of Okhotsk, Russia. The East Pacific gray whale, that mate and give birth in Baja California, Mexico, was once also endangered due to reckless hunting. Currently, however, thanks to the steadfast protection policy, there are 20,000 of them roaming the waters.

The stamp features a young gray whale and its adult version. The stamp featuring the young gray whale shows the gray whale’s own, inherent skin pattern without any barnacles or whale lice attached to the skin. The stamp featuring the adult gray whale, on the other hand, vividly shows both the adult gray whale’s unique characteristic covered with traces of barnacles once attached but now gone, as well as the gray whale’s own unique outer appearance of its thick lower jaw.