EXPLOITATION AND CONSERVATION

 

Picture From Archipelagos

Marine mammals have long been highly prized targets of human looking for a good source of food, furs, oil and later a whole host of other products. Because they are large, they were attractive subjects of human exploitation but their relatively in accessible habitats made them hard to hunt until the last few 100 years.

The first known large-scale hunting of large whales was by the Basques starting in the first millennium AD. They mainly targeted the north Atlantic right whale, and were so effective that they decimated that species.

Japanese began their culture of whale hunting in the 1600’s.In 1700’s the “Yankee Whaling” era, focused largely on sperm whales began and the United States became a major player in the commercial whaling game.

Fast- Swimming species, such as the rorquals(blue, fin sei, bryde’s & Minke whales) were now within  the reach of commercial whalers. It didn’t take long for them to decimate species after species, starting with the largest and working their way down to commercial extinction.

In recent Decades, the direct killing of whales and dolphins has become much less important and the indirect deaths of especially dolphins & porpoises have increased dramatically. There is no doubt that more cetaceans die incidentally in fishing nets each year than from any other threat, inciuding whale and dolphin hunting.

In the last few decades, the other major threats to these animals in the form of habitat degradation and loss, environmental contamination, noise pollution and damage and even live captures for captive display and research.

No cetacean species is known to have been wiped –out by humans (yet), but several species are now on the very verge of that fate (e.g., the vaquita in Mexico; the baiji in china may already be extinct).

A relatively new threat facing cetaceans comes in the form of human- made noise that can be potentially disturbing or even damaging to animals. The major concerns nowadays have to do with seismic survey noise (Generally created with airguns in the search for petrol chemicals), and intense sound created by military sonars (used to detect submarines).

Seals and sea lions also have a long history of human exploitation. Because they were so easy to kill when hauled out on land, While most species survived the exploitation and even recovered to pre-exploitation numbers and beyond (Witness the northern elephant seal, for instance), some were wiped out. The Japanese sea lion is also thought to be extinct, although there is still some hope that a remnant of this species may survive in Japanese or Korean waters.

Sirenians seem to be hunted wherever they occur, an unfortunate result of the apparently excellent taste of their flesh and their relative ease of capture. All 3 species of manatees and the dugong have been brought to levels that threaten extinction in the next few decades.

The polar bear was never driven to near extinction, but it has been heavily exploited by native peoples and westerners.

The perception that all large whales are endangered is wrong. The truth is that most large whales are recovering from past exploitation (the North Atlantic and north pacific right whales are the major expectations), and the most serious conservation problems now lie with several of the smaller species. All of the sirenians, a few seals (e.g., the vaquita, baiji, Indus sus, north island hector’s dolphin, and Atlantic hump back dolphin) are probably in the worst shape. It is our sincere hope that to appreciate the diversity of the world’s marine mammals, and inspire them to work towards their protection.