In fact, whales eat a varied diet, including plankton, krill, and also small fishes. Fish is not the only thing that whales eat. Whales are also being killed in a misguided effort to reduce competition for fish, and several small cetaceans like smaller whales, dolphins, and porpoise species are hunted for the use as a bait to catch fish, especially sharks.
Today, modern whaling is conducted primarily for meat in commercial whaling. Whale meat, other marine mammals, and fish became the main source of food for them, being rich in niacin, iron, and protein. For thousands of years, the climate in Greenland was too cold for many people, including the Eskimos and the indigenous people to grow their own vegetables. Indigenous people also hunted whales because of their meet to fulfil their basic survival needs. However, the use of whale oil declined in the mid-1800's as kerosene and other petroleum products started replacing its use. A single large sperm whale could yield as much as three tons of sperm oil. Whale oil obtained from sperm whales, right whales, and bowhead whales was especially in high demand. Some cultures also used the meat, although most did not. In the early days of commercial hunting, whales have been hunted for many products including bones, blubber (oil), the “whalebone” (baleen), and spermaceti, which refers to the oil in the head of sperm whales used to make candles and cosmetics. But some countries continue to hunt whales for profit, notably Iceland, Japan, and Norway.Įven though actions are being taken and bans are being placed, the number of whales in the wild has reached a critically low number due to over-whaling, and at least seven of the 13 large whale species are either endangered or vulnerable even after many years of protection. A moratorium on commercial hunting of whales was finally put in place by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in late 1986.
In the 1960s, due to over-hunting, most large whale populations collapsed. Throughout the centuries, whaling became increasingly intense and widespread, especially with the development of the exploding harpoon and better boat engines to chase down the whales. Whaling is the practice of hunting and killing whales by humans for multiple purposes and has been going on for more than a thousand years. This is her first blog for the International Marine Mammal Project. Audrey Lee is a writer living in Singapore.
0 kommentar(er)
