Save the Whales

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Although there is an international ban on commercial whaling, whales are still hunted under the pretext of "scientific research." Moreover, several countries are campaigning to lift the ban. Whale hunting has aroused passionate opposition from many people.  The reasons for this outcry ar not just that these animals are slaughtered in an inhumane manner and that they have been driven to the brink of extinction.  Another factor is that these mysterious marine mammals may posses an intelligence comparable to our own.

Whale Hunting:
Stone age rock carvings suggest that people hunted whales for food as early as 2200 B.C. They hunted slow swimming coastal species, such as the right, bow head, and gray whales.  A few groups like the Inuit of Greenland and North America still practice subsistence hunting- hunting whales for food.

Whaling became big business during the 17th century when the demand for whalebone whale oil increased. Humpback and sperm whales were hunted in large numbers.  just when the stocks of the species began to fall, the explosive harpoon gun was invented.  This weapon and the development of fast steam powered ships allowed whalers to hunt fast moving rorquals such as the blue whale.

In 1905 whaling fleets moved into Antarctic's waters, making South Georgia the whaling center of the world.  The introduction of massive factory ships let the slaughtered whales be processed at sea.  During the season of 1930 - 31, about 30,000 blue whales were killed and processed. As a result of increasingly efficient killing, the blue whale had virtually disappeared by the 1950's.  Hunters then turned to the smaller species, such as the fin, sie, and minke whales.

Whale Conservation:

The international Whaling Commission (IWC) ws established in 1946 to manage the declining whale stocks.  It lifted an existing ban on hunting the humpback whale and permitted a quota of 1,250 to be killed.  Quotas were then set for other species, but they were often ignored.

During the 1970's many conservation groups realized that, unless action was taken, many whales would soon become extinct.  1972 the International Union for the Conservation Union and Natural Resources (IUCN) and the United Nations General Assembly proposed a 10 year ban on whaling, but the IWC rejected it.  Three years later, the Conservation on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) gave complete protection to a number of species, such as the gray, blue, humpback, and right whales.  But the hunting of other species continued until 1986, when the IWC responded to international pressure and limited commercial whaling.

Although international trade in whale produces can be controlled, the exploiting of whales by individual countries, such as Japan and Norway, cannot.  The IWC ban on hunting whales is essentially volunteer.  Norway, Japan and some former Soviet countries still have large whaling fleets and are pressing for the resumption of commercial hunting.  Only continued public pressure backed by economic sanctions will ensure protection for all whale species.

Sea Mammals

Whales constitute one of three groups of warm blooded mammals that are specially adapted to sea life.  The 80 or so species are split into two groups based on the way they feed.

Toothed whales have mouths lined with sharp teeth that they use to eat fish and marine mammals. This group includes the sperm and killer whales as well as dolphins and porpoises.

Baleen whales have mouths lined with row of keratin plates through which the extracts tiny sea creatures.  baleen whales include the minke and blue whales.

A notable feature of all whale is the size and structure of their brains.  An adult sperm whale's brain is the largest of any animal, weighing up to 20 pounds. Scientist are interested in the development of a whales brain cortex, the section of the brain where the thought processes take place.  Although in many whale species part of the cerebral cortex is small, the neocortex (external gray layer) is well developed. But it is not known it this means whales are intelligent.

Under the current International Whaling Commission ban, a whale may ben killed for subsistence or "scientific whaling," Norway, Iceland, and Japan kill a few whales to monitor the number and population structure of a species.  But conservation groups like Green peace try to study whales' behavior and numbers without killing them.

Accurate information about whale populations is important so that a species is not hunted to the point where it is unable to recover.  Whales are vulnerable because they mature slowly and do not reproduce rapidly.

Counting whales is not easy, however.  Although some species have distinctive marking by which individuals markings by which individuals can be recognized, others do not.  In the past stainless steel marker darts were lodged in a whale's blubber.  When whales caught the whale, they used the tag to fin d out about the individuals age and movement.  To make populations estimates, they compared the number of whales that had been tagged to the proportion of darts recovered.  Today, there are spaghetti tags" (darts with streamers) that let whales be monitored without being killed.  Another method counts the whales during a particular imaginary line a transect drawn across the sea.  Using the sightings from the sea and air, the population density of a particular region can be estimated.

Accidental Deaths:

Each year more whales die accidentally by being trapped and drowned in fishing nets.  One study estimated that 3,000 harbor porpoises are killed every year by nets et for cod in the North Sea.  In the Pacific, yellow fin tuna fishing has killed six million or so spinner and bridled dolphins since the 1960's.  Tune often follow dolphins, probably because they benefit from dolphins use of echolocation to find prey.  Dolphins are easier to see than tuna, so fishing boats often set their long nets around both.

s a result of public outcry, (including your truly) today there are special nets with gates through which captured dolphins can be released.  Consumer boycotts had lead some companies to print the words "dolphin friendly" on cans  with tuna caught by means that do not hurt dolphins.

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