RE: Whales Are Dying ... Dying Sad...

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Mom=*Family First*
Date: Feb 1, 2009 1:59 PM




Whales Are Dying... Dying Sad...

June 1, 2008
by Scuba Herald


The whale population has already fallen dramatically over the
past few centuries because to culling by Japan, Norway and Iceland,
and the poisoning of oceans which kills off their food.


But now a French scientist has said the majestic mammals - which can
reach 80ft in length and weigh the same as a passenger jet - could also
suffer from heartbreak.


Paris naturalist Yves Paccalet said: ‘It may be that these intelligent
animals are so exhausted from their combat with humankind that they
have simply have given up the fight.


‘And the psychological consequences of our aggression have
compromised their will to live.
’

Paccalet, who worked with French marine explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau,
added: ‘To reproduce, whales need a large number of individuals to
ensure that they meet, frolic and excite each other.


‘Otherwise, the species may give in to a kind of sexual melancholy
and simply stop breeding.
’

Despite an international moratorium on whale hunting in 1986,
Japan, Norway and Iceland continue to cull more than 2,000 a year
for their meat and oil.


Some species like the North Pacific and North Atlantic whales have
been reduced to just a few hundred survivors, and could be extinct
within decades.


Even species counted in the thousands and expanding each year by up
to ten per cent would need many years of uninterrupted breeding to
regain their original numbers, scientists say.


Blue whales have recovered from a low of 400 in the 1970s to around
2,200 today, but that is believed to be only one per cent of their
numbers 500 years ago.


A 2007 study by the Iceland Marine Research Institute revealed a
’significant decrease’ in the population of minke whales since 2001.

Japan and Norway killed more than 1,600 minke in 2007.


Regina Asmutis-Silvia, senior biologist at the Whale and Dolphin
Conservation Society, said commercial hunting was not the only threat
to their survival.


‘It is a mistake to factor out the single issue of hunting.
You need
to look at the cumulative impact of vessel strikes, entanglements in
fishing nets, pollution, destruction of habitat and acoustic
disturbances.


‘Climate change is also looming as a danger, and acidification of
the oceans driven by global warming could also sharply reduce the
number of krill, which are the mainstay of the whale diet.


‘Their situation is very critical. It could go either way,” she said.


Representatives from pro-whaling and pro-conservation groups will
come face to face at the International Whaling Commission’s annual
meeting this week to discuss how to save the species from extinction.


..Mom = *Family First*
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