THREATS, PROTECTION, RESEARCH

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--- THREATS: Whales

The history of whaling

Whales have been hunted for thousands of years. Especially the indigenous people of Greenland and Alaska, the Eskimos and Inuit, have a long tradition of hunting whales and seals for food. They have gone out in small kayaks or umiaks to catch a whale, which would provide their community for quite a while. Also in other areas of the world, where whales come close to shore, small scale whaling emerged: the Caribbean, Indonesia, Tonga. A number of these communities still hunt whales in the traditional fashion. This type of whaling is nowadays referred to as aboriginal or subsistence whaling.

Between 800 and 1000 A.D. some whaling operations started in Northern Europe and shortly afterwards, the Basques started larger scale whaling operations in the Gulf of Biscaye. This whaling operation expanded and in the 16th century, Basque whalers were operating along the European coast and near Greenland. This operation was the first commercial whaling operation, since the whales were not only caught for local consumption, but whale products were traded as well. In the 17th century, Dutch and British whalers became active as well and they travelled as far north as
Spitzbergen. Until this time, the main target of the whalers were the right whales, named thus, because they were the right whales to hunt, since they floated when killed (rorquals sink when killed). The 17th century whaling operations discovered a new target: the bowhead whale. In the wake of this discovery, the whaling operations expanded towards the Davis Strait, Canada. At the same time, whaling operations started on the American East coast. Originally these operations targeted right and humpback whales, but in the early 18th century, these whalers discovered that sperm whales were a profitable target as well and switched to sperm whale hunting. This hunt changed the type of whaling from coastal operations to more pelagic (open ocean) operations. Whalers from New England and later from Great Britain, moved around Cape Horn into the Pacific.
In the early 19th century, Hawaii became a new centre of whaling activities. By the late 19th century, commercial whaling operations had been established around Australia and New Zealand, in the Northern Pacific and as far North as the Bering, Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Up to that time, the whales had been hunted with handheld harpoons from small rowing boats. The killed whales were processed at sea, alongside the main ship.

Modern whaling

The whaling operations changed drastically at the end of the 19th century. In 1868, the Norwegian Svend Foyn developed the explosive harpoon, that could be launched from a harpoon gun and mounted it on a steam-driven vessel. This suddenly made it possible to hunt species that were impossible to catch from rowing boats: the fast-swimming rorquals. This so-called second wave of whaling spread rapidly to all the known whaling grounds and in 1905 large populations of blue and fin whales were discovered in the Antarctic. The Southern Ocean rapidly became the centre of commercial whaling operations. The operations were still basically land-based however, where most of the processing of the catch was done on land or on ships in sheltered bays. The final push for the whaling industry came in 1925, with the development of factory ships: these large ships had all the facilities for processing the whales on board and could therefore stay out at sea for long periods of time and thus reach whaling grounds that were unreachable before. This really opened up the Antarctic whaling grounds. As a result, the number of whales caught went up drastically. In the 1937-1938 season, 46,000 whales were killed in the Antarctic alone. During World War II, whaling almost stopped, but from 1947 through 1965 about 30,000 whales were taken in the Southern Ocean each year.

The succession of species

The early whaling operations were targeted mainly on right whales and bowhead whales. In the late 18th century, the northern stocks of these species were rapidly declining and in the mid 19th century the Southern right whale population was also depleted. During the same period, the hunt for sperm whales also slowed down considerably. With the introduction of the harpoon gun, the large blue whales became the new target for the whaling industry. In the 1930s, the blue whale was the main species being hunted. However, the population was rapidly declining and attention switched to the next largest species: the fin whale. When the fin whale populations also collapsed, in the early 1960s, the whalers turned to the sei whale. All along, humpback whales were also caught until this species also collapsed in the 1960s.

Regulations

The first attempt to regulate whaling started with the establishment by Norway of the Bureau of International Whaling Statistics in 1930. In 1931, the first International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was negotiated, which provided protection for the right whales and females with calves. This convention was poorly observed, however. In 1937, the First International Whaling Convention was agreed by most countries, involved in whaling. This convention added the gray whale to the list of protected species and limited the whaling season in the Southern Ocean.

Since 1948, whaling has been regulated by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The IWC has developed a set of regulations for the management of whaling, which are revised annually. These include the classification of stocks of whales and the protection of certain species or stocks, catch limits (quota as well as closed seasons), inspections and data collection. In 1982, the IWC decided to implement a 10 year moratorium on commercial whaling, starting in with the 1985-1986 season. Although this meant null quota for commercial whaling, it did not mean the end of whaling altogether. There was room for the take of small numbers of whales for scientific purposes. Under these scientific quota, minke whales have been taken, notably by Japan. This issue has been debated quite a lot. Also, some whales have been taken under the subsistence whaling regulations, which allow traditional, aboriginal whalers to take a small number of whales for local use. This includes bowhead whales, minke whale and gray whales. Under this regulation, the Makah tribe in the US has requested permission to resume whaling, although they have not been hunting whales for 90 years. They will catch up to 9 gray whales in 1998.

In 1996, the moratorium expired. Immediately after the expiration of the moratorium Norway has resumed its commercial hunt for minke whales with self-imposed quota, since the IWC has not yet set any catch quota for any species. In 1996, 113 whales were caught and in 1997 503. Japan has not officially resumed its commercial whaling operations yet, although this country has been catching small toothed whales (which are not included in the moratorium), notable Dall's porpoise (10,000-15,000 per year). Also, Japan has been catching minke whales throughout the moratorium period under the IWC exemption for scientific research.

Other threats

It is clear that whaling has had a severe impact on whale populations. Whaling activities are greatly reduced now, but this does not mean the whales are free from threats. First of all a number of populations have been reduced to such so levels that it remains to be seen if they can recover. And in addition, there are a number of other threats.

Fisheries

Fisheries are a double threat to the whales. In a number of areas, the commercial fisheries take the same species of fish that whales eat, thus reducing the available food for the whales. Even krill in the Southern Ocean is commercially exploited now. In addition, fishing gear poses a threat to whales. Especially in the pelagic driftnet fisheries, in which nets of several kilometers long are left to drift in the ocean, numerous marine animals get entangled and drown, including sharks, dolphins, seals, turtles and large whales. Lost gear ends up drifting freely in the oceans and these ghost nets are often called curtains of death, not without reason. But also in smaller scale coastal fisheries, whales often become entangled in nets or ropes.

Chemical pollution

Quite a number of polluting chemicals, produced and used on land, ultimately end up in the oceans. There they are taken up by micro-organisms, and through plankton, krill and fish travel up the food chains of the oceans and end up in marine mammals. Especially organochlorine compounds like DDTs and PCBs are known to accumulate in marine mammals. These compounds can have a negative effect on the immune system and reproduction, thus causing early death and a reduction in the number of successful births. These organochlorines accumulate in fat and therefor the blubber of whales is a potential storage for these poison. When the whale goes through a period of fasting (in winter), the whale breaks down its blubber layer and releases these toxins, more or less poisoning itself.

Also heavy metals, like cadmium and mercury, tend to accumulate in marine mammals and these substances can be toxic. Especially mercury can have a detrimental effect on the liver.

For baleen whales, oil spills are potentially quite dangerous. Whereas toothed whales may not be severely affected by it, oil can stick to the baleen and render it useless, so that the whale will have
great difficulty feeding.

Noise pollution

Man not only pollutes the ocean with chemicals: he is also the source of a lot of noises. Since the whales rely heavily on sound for their communication, excessive noise can disrupt their normal
behaviour, hamper communication between groups and even damage the whales' hearing. There are many sources of sound pollution. Well known sources are boats and oil rigs. But in many areas, the sea bottom is being explored acoustically: the echoes of loud explosions are being analysed to find new sources of oil and minerals. These explosions are repeated many types, for long periods of time and they are therefor potentially very disturbing for whales. There has also been quite some controversy about new developments like the Acoustic Thermography of the Oceans (ATOC). This is a loud sound source, which is used to measure sound propagation through the Pacific Ocean for research purposes. Another controversial project is the Low Frequency Sonar Array (LFA), which is currently under investigation in Hawaii.

Boat traffic

Migrating whales often cross busy shipping lanes in the oceans.Apart from the noise pollution already mentioned, the whales then run the risk of collisions with boats. Especially on the American
Northeastern coastline, collisions with whales are not uncommon and several whales have scars because of this. A collision can even kill a whale. Since 1972, at least 15 right whales have been killed in US waters as a result of collisions with ships. In some high risk areas, aerial surveys are now conducted to detect whales and warn ships in the area.

Climate changes

Global warming (the greenhouse effect) will also have an effect on water temperature. Changes in water temperature will affect the productivity in the oceans and thus can have a profound effect on the food supply for whales. What those effects will be is hard to predict. Also normal climate fluctuations, like El Niño, can have drastic effects on productivity. So far the current El Niño event has had a dramatic effect on the food supply of seals and sea lions on the California coast line, but there have not been any obvious effects on whales thus far.

Natural enemies and threats

Being large animals, most baleen whales do not have a lot of natural enemies. However, animals that hunt in groups, like killer whales do every now and then attack these large whales. The smaller minke whales (not much larger than adult killer whales) are also on the killer whales' diet. In a lot of cases, the killer whales attack special areas of the body of a larger whale. Favoured targets are the dorsal fin area, the lips and the tongue. They do not kill the whale, but take the favourite parts and leave. If the damage is not too extensive, a whale may even survive such an attack. Occasionally, larger sharks may take young or weak individuals.

Every now and then, whales end up in places where they are not supposed to be. A very famous case was Humphrey, the humpback whale, who swam into the San Francisco Bay and up the Sacramento River in late 1985. He attracted a lot of media attention and a number of attempts were made to make him go back. After 25 days he did leave the river and the Bay and headed out to sea. He was resighted near the Farallon Islands off the California coast in August 1986. He has even been the subject of songs and children's books.

In May 1994, a gray whale also ended up in the San Francisco Bay. First it swam up the Petaluma river but then disappeared. Some time later it ended up in a small creek near San Jose, all the way on the other end of the Bay. This whale was not so lucky and died there. Also in other areas, whales are occasionally found up in rivers. In 1992, a fin whale ended up in a river in the Netherlands.

Up in the Arctic, whales do occasionally get trapped in the pack ice and have no way back to open water. When this happens, the whales cannot go anywhere and eventually die when the breathing hole in the ice freezes over.