“ Many whale species face an uncertain future , as in addition to whaling there are increasing anthropogenic threats ( i . e . those derived from human activities ) such as pollution , entanglement in fishing gear , being hit by ships , climate change , etc . There is still only limited scientific knowledge on cetacean population sizes , biology , ecology and behaviour .” -Katherine George What Ms . George is saying is that , in addition to whaling , there are even more threats to whales , all caused by humans . This means that the whale populations are in serious danger , as they already have been seriously harmed by whaling .
o Whale Populations were greatly harmed due to commercial whaling .
- Whaling caused marine populations to become irregular . There were more krill and small fish , so there were more sharks and other organisms who ate the krill and small fish . Then both populations plunged because the organisms were eating the krill and small fish . This caused the predatory ( the type of animal that preys on other organisms .) marine animal population to plunge because they ate all the food .
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Many types of whales were hunted to near extinction . Extinction means that the type of whale would be gone FOREVER . Extinction is a VERY bad thing .
¨ Many THOUSANDS of whales were killed EACH YEAR .
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More than 360,000 blue whales , 750,000 fin whales , and 400,000 sperm whales were killed during the time period when whaling was allowed .
¨ Millions of whales existed in the past . Now there are much fewer whales in the world .
§ Today there are 6,000-14,000 Blue Whales
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