Cetacea

Has anyone ever thought about what the ocean would be like without whales? One thing that is never thought about when whales are being hunted is how important they are. For humans to understand the purpose of the whale and just going off the information one has learned may be different. Understanding the whale may be more complex than thought out to be. There is more to know about whales other than they can be big intimidating creatures. It is important to make sure whales are being protected.…

The practice of hunting whales and harvesting the beached whales dates back to at least 3000 B.C. Industrial Whaling dates back to the 17th century, The Dutch and the English maintained large whaling fleets. Whalers began hunting further away from home as whale numbers fell. By the 19th century America was the leader of the whaling industry. Part of the modernization of the whaling industry was the invention of the factory ship. These were enormous self-sufficient ships that processed the…

Food is not only for the stomach but also for the heart, mind and soul. It is what ties you back to your heritage and culture. That is very evident during the segment that talked about the Makah Indians. The culture and lifestyle of the Makah Indians is tied back to the sea. A big part of their culture was the hunting of the gray whales. The tribe hunted gray whales for thousands of years and they used every part of the whale as food, different items or trade if there was extra. Makah leaders…

Blue Whales, the largest animals in the world so far, are facing with the situation of being extinct, as they have been harvested for a long time, making the population decrease to 50,000. In the early 20 century, people took up whaling for the energy sources, and the meat and fat of whales can be used in different ways. Since the price of whale meat is really high, many people regard the profit as the chief motivation, caring less about the ecological system. There were about 66000 whales…

The author states the theories about the main cause of extinction, and provides three reasons of support. However, the professor explains that these theories were not the cause of Steller’s sea cow population decline, and refutes each of the author’s reasons. The reading posits that the sea cows were overhunted by the native Siberian people. On the other hand, the professor explains this point by saying that the sea cow was a mass creature with nine meters long heavy body. He states that the…

Whaling has been a Native American tradition for over 2,000 years, incidentally the International Whaling Commission and many other nongovernmental organizations are trying to change that tradition. These types of organizations such as Greenpeace, IWC, and NAMMCO, entail transnationalist views. Whereas on the other hand, states like Japan, Norway, and Iceland, have nationalist perceptions. The transnationalist argument against whaling mainly deals with animal rights and also the impact on the…

Many people confuse porpoises with dolphins but they are actually different animals. They both are Cetaceans and have similar shapes but that’s about as far as their similarities go. The most confused species of porpoise and dolphin are the Harbour Porpoise and the Bottlenose Dolphin found in Britain’s seas. This is because from far away they look similar, but if you actually look at the two of them you would see they are very different. For the sake of simplicity, one can compare the…

The text and the lecture offer two opposing views on the possible causes of the ‘quacker sound’ which were heard by sailors in Russian submarines. While the text lists theories for those strange sound, the professor counters those specific points and explains that the theories might be accurate but there are certain problems with each of them and all the theories doubtable. First, the reading argues that the Orcas whales produce sound to attract a male is like this strange sound. On the other…

Bottlenose Dolphin attacks on Harbour Porpoises Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) attacks have been responsible for 318 Harbour Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) deaths between 1991 and 2010. However, almost everything we know about Bottlenose Dolphin attacks comes from the necropsies of their victims; Harbour Porpoise, as very few attacks have been observed or even documented scientifically. In the UK there are two established populations of Bottlenose Dolphins; Cardigan Bay, Wales and the…

The Japanese and Norwegian violation of the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) moratorium on whaling are two distinct issues in my mind. In 1986 the IWC imposed a moratorium on whaling (IWC. n.d.) in order to protect the worldwide population of whales. I contend that the protection of whales, or any other species which are in danger of extinction is a positive and necessary step, but the protection of thriving species is unnecessary. Norway only allows whaling of minke whales (fisheries…