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    Whale tales—hunting stories of man-against-beast—should be a thing of the past. But these huge, graceful animals are still being hunted today.Before electricity was commonplace, whale oil was used to light homes and many species of the giant animals were hunted for their blubber and meat. At the height of the whaling industry, one species after another was killed off. Throughout the 20th century, whale products could be found in everything from women's cosmetics to machine oil. In 1961 alone, 66,000 whales were killed during one season. In 1986, a moratorium on the commercial whaling industry was put in place to replenish whale populations that had been hunted to the verge of extinction. The Indian Ocean has been declared a whale sanctuary in an effort to stem this trend. Even with these conservation efforts, seven of the 13 great whales remain endangered as new threats contribute to their plight. Catch limitations are often set too high to allow whale pods to reproduce quickly. Fishing operations in Japan and Norway profit from the sale of whale meat, which can fetch up to US $350 a kilogram. Hunting figures have been falsified and there was even an incident of using a "scientific study" as a front for commercial whaling. The North Atlantic Right Whale has been hunted to near extinction. The slow moving whale - it floats when dead as opposed to most whales, which sink immediately - got its name from being known as the 'right' whale to hunt. Despite 50 years of protection, North Atlantic Right Whale populations have not shown any progress in the past 15 years. Outside of natural causes, fatal collisions with ships account for nearly 90 per cent of Right Whale deaths. Although the commercial whaling industry was once solely responsible for the depletion of many whale species, threats are now coming from different areas: entanglement in fishing lines, toxic contamination, ship collisions, gas and oil projects in feeding grounds, climate changes and habitat degradation. Environmental pollution in the ocean effects whales a variety of ways. Chemicals in the water are absorbed and accumulated in the blubber of Baleen whales. These toxins are then slowly released into their milk and sicken their calves. As part of a global effort to protect the planet and the animals that inhabit it, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) administers one of the world's largest conservation agreements, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES is an agreement between governments to ensure that international trade of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. To date, 160 governments are bound by the Convention, which offers varying protection to more than 35,000 species of animals and plants. Not a single species protected by CITES has become extinct since the treaty came into force in 1975.
LEARN MORE how the UN works with its partners around the world to save endangered species. Go to the links at the side of the page. Photo credit: UN |
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