Cetacea, or whales as they are more widely known, are the largest
mammals on Earth and can be found in every ocean. They are carnivorous animals that can be found at the top of the food chain. However, these majestic creatures are in danger of becoming extinct because of whaling.
Whaling is the process of going out and hunting whales for their blubber or meat. This is a very serious problem for whales and their ecosystems. Whales are put at the top of the food chain and have no predators that actively hunt them for food. Whales, mainly baleen whales such as the humpback whale, eat plankton, which consists of a bunch of tiny organisms. This lowers the amount of plankton in the water at a time. In addition, whale feces helps stimulate plankton growth, which helps pull carbon from the air, acting as air filters that can help slow the effects of global warming. If whales were to be overhunted, then there will be less carbon dioxide taken from the atmosphere, which increases the issue of global warming. The rapid disappearance of whales from the food chain because of whaling will also throw it out of balance, and create a snowball effect that damages the ecosystem, as plankton killed off by the whales grows abundant out of control and predators higher up the food chain start to die.
Over time, there has been legislation passed in and outside of the US to
help combat the dangers of whaling and help to conserve whale species in every ocean. One legislation passed in the US was the Endangered Species Act or ESA. The ESA, passed in 1973, protects threatened and endangered animals from extinction, and makes it illegal to kill, hunt, collect, injure, or harass any animal considered to be endangered. Another law in the US is the Marine Mammal Protection Act, passed in 1972. The MMPA makes it illegal to kill, hunt, injure, or harass all marine mammal species. It is also illegal to import marine mammals or marine animal products made into the US.
One big international law passed was the International Whaling Convention
(IWC). Passed in 1946, the convention oversees the management of the whaling industry across the world. This convention created a pause on commercial whaling known as the ‘Moratorium,’ which went into effect for the 1985/1986 season, and it continues to this day, protecting tens of thousands of whales each year. Countries from around the globe have joined the IWC. However, there are three countries that have left the IWC: Norway, Iceland, and Japan, who left the IWC in 2019. Although these countries have left the IWC, they are still required to report their catches to the convention. Whaling records have been recorded since 1985, and Minke Whales are reported to be the most hunted whales from 1985-2020. These totals are mainly from Norway, Iceland, and Japan. The combined whaling by these three countries has driven the North Atlantic right whale populations down to only 300-400 remaining individuals, with no right whales born in 2018.
While whaling is not an environmentally-friendly industry, killing hundreds,
nearly thousands of whales per year, there are some whale activities that are better at conserving whales. Whale watching is an activity where people get on a boat and watch whales in their natural habitat. This activity doesn’t harm the whales and allows people to get close and observe whales from a safe distance. The whale watching industry pulls in roughly $2 billion and attracts more than 13 million visitors annually. When managed properly, whale watching is seen as a more viable and ethical source of income compared to whaling.
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