“ 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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