Whaling
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Many species of whales have been hunted almost to extinction and are now endangered.
Contents |
Understanding whaling
The causes
Evidence
Cost-benefit analysis
What are the solutions
Organisations that work on whaling
Greenpeace oppose whaling and believe that the history says it all, before the moratorium on commercial whaling the whaling industry drove one species after another towards oblivion. We still do not know after 40 years with the moratorium if some species will ever recover. Humpback whales could have been as many as 1,5 million prior to commercial whaling in the 1800's, now they number only 20,000. The West Pacific Grey Whale is the most endangered whale with only about a 100 remaining. But whaling is not the only threat to the whales. Known environmental threats to whales include global warming, pollution, overfishing, ozone depletion, noise such as sonar weaponry, and ship strikes. Industrial fishing threatens the food supply of whales and also puts whales at risk of entanglement in fishing gear. People should also think about their own health before eating whales, samples from whales has shown that the blubber are so contaminated with pesticides and organochlorines such as PCBs that they should be classifies as toxic waste.
Expectations for the recovery of whale populations have been based on the assumption that, except for commercial whaling, their place in the oceans is as secure as it was a hundred years ago. As this sadly is not the case anymore, a return to commercial whaling would drive the whales to extinction. For more information Greenpeace whaling page
