Whales: their survival depends on human action

I have been on quite a few Whale Watches in the last 4 decades. What we tend to see up here are humpback and minke whales. My most recent WW was last Friday when we went with 300, or so, 7th graders to the Stellewagan Bay Sanctuary located in the waters North of the Cape Cod Bay. I have a strong sense of importance attached to whales and their continuing survival. Periodically I get newsletters from conservation groups and I am always sucked into articles about whale populations and whale health.

Sonar communication (maybe developed using what was known about cetacean communication) is disrupting the health of the cetacean populations (not just whales, but also porpoises and dolphins). We are using the same bandwidth that whales use to hunt as well as communicate. It confuses their senses enough to block their sonar-location of food sources and has, studies show, left many individuals/pods to die of starvation.

Whaling continues in many countries despite the largely world-wide ban on the practice. More needs to be done to protect those species with small numbers facing extinction and inbreeding. Many whale populations have rebounded, but not enough to ease up bans on their slaughter.