Tuesday, 8. December 2009, 02:05:05
The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) has been promulgated by the United States Congress in 1972. It is one of the first laws developed to protect a separate category of wildlife, and makes it illegal for any person under legal jurisdiction of the United States to kill, hunt, injure or harass all species of marine mammals, regardless of their population status. In addition, the Marine Mammal Protection Act also makes it illegal for anyone to import marine mammals or products made from them into the United States. Marine mammals protected under this Act include: dolphins, whales, seals, sea lions, sea otters, polar bears, manatees, dugongs and walruses.
Some exceptions to the Marine Mammal Protection Act exist that allow certain numbers of marine mammals to be collected for scientific and public display purposes, to be hunted for subsistence use by natives of the North Pacific and Arctic coasts, and to be caught incidental to commercial fishing operations.
Similar to the Endangered Species Act, the responsibility for administering the Marine Mammal Protection Act is shared by two federal agencies. The National Marine Fisheries Service of the Commerce Department has authority with regard to all members of the order Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) and all members of the order Pinnipedia (seals) except walruses. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior administers the Act with respect to all other species of marine mammals (walruses, sea otters, polar bears, manatees and dugongs).
In addition, a special scientific advisory board was created under the Act called the Marine Mammal Commission. The purpose of the Marine Mammal Commission is to serve as an impartial and non-political source of expert scientific advice relating to marine mammals. Both the National Marine Fisheries Service and The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are required to consult with the Marine Mammal Commission in administering their duties under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act also provides economic encouragement for other nations to protect marine mammals by restricting the importation of certain products from foreign countries whose fishing or other practices significantly reduce the ability of the Act to acheive its goals.
Tuesday, 8. December 2009, 02:02:44
The Endangered Species Act is a federal law enforced by the United States Congress in 1973. This law protects both endangered species, defined as those "in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of their range," and threatened species, those likely to become endangered "within the forseeable future." Under the Act, the term "species" includes species and subspecies of fish, wildlife and plants, as well as geographically distinct populations of vertebrate wildlife (including fish) even though the species as a whole may not be endangered.
The Endangered Species Act serves to fulfil the United States commitment to various international treaties on wildlife conservation (such as CITES). It is a powerful tool designed to resolve conflicts between proposals for development and the survival of species.
Two federal agencies are responsible for enforcing the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior administers the Act for animals and plants found on land or in fresh water. The National Marine Fisheries Service of the Commerce Department administers the Act for marine plants and animals.
The focus of this law is the list of endangered and threatened species. For all animal species listed as endangered, it is illegal to kill, hunt, collect, injure or harass them, or to destruct their habitat in any way. It is also illegal to buy or sell any species (or products made from species) listed as endangered.
Tuesday, 8. December 2009, 02:00:33
On the risk of blue whales’ extinction, the US government has promulgated two federal laws to protect all species of whales, including the humpbacks: the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
In addition, there are specific regulations on approaching humpback whales in Hawaiian waters. These regulations are meant to ensure that humpback whales are not disturbed or harassed in the course of human activities. These regulations are listed below.
“It is unlawful to:
1. Operate any aircraft within 1,000 feet of a humpback whale
2. Approach by any means (i.e., by boat or by swimming) closer than 100 yards of any humpback whale or closer than 300 yards of a humpback mother and calf.
3. Disrupt the normal behavior or activity of a humpback whale. This is considered a form of harassment.”
Violators of these regulations may be prosecuted by the Federal government and may be subject to penalties of up to $25,000 for each violation or penalty.
International protection
Outside the United States, populations of the humpback and other species of whales are protected from hunting under agreements made by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), as mentioned above.
In addition, protection against the pressures of international trade is provided by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES is an international treaty that protects whales as well as other endangered species by prohibiting trade in their parts or products. 120 nations, including most wildlife consuming and producing nations, have signed the treaty and have agreed to abide by its provisions.
Thursday, 3. December 2009, 14:00:53
Illegal whaling has become the global preoccupation. Everyday there are hundreds of blue whales that call for help and scream painfully due to being hunted by savage modern technologies. That makes blue whales become a species which is facing imminent extinction. Contributing to save blue whales, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was set up under the International Convention for the regulation of whaling which was signed in Washington DC on 2nd December 1946. The main duty of the IWC is to control review and revise as necessary the measure laid down in the Schedule to the Convention which governs the conduct of whaling throughout the world. These measures, among other things, provide for the complete protection of certain species; designate specified areas as whale sanctuaries; set limits on the numbers and size of whales which may be taken… Since its founding, the IWC has evolved from an organization whose primary purpose was to facilitate commercial whaling into an organization focused more on conservation and protection of whales. In 1986, in response to the realization that the existing regulation scheme was not preserving the whale population, the IWC issued a moratorium on commercial whaling, following what it deemed decades of “over-exploitation which had driven several whale species to the edge of extinction.” Although many countries still continue hunting blue whales illegally and cruelly because of their commercial purpose, the laws of IWC have contributed to restrict to some extent the whaling in over the world.
Thursday, 26. November 2009, 17:32:13
As a kind of baleen whales, blue whales have stiff baleen plates growing down from the gums of the upper jaw. These plates which are made of a strong, yet elastic material - keratin (a protein composed in hair and fingernails) are soft and short at birth but stiffen as soon as the thickening of skin on the upper jaw during the whale’s growth. Throughout their lifetime, blue whales own a baleen of around 300 plates (each 1m long) which functions as a strainer when each plate intertwines during the whale’s feeding to capture food. Together with the baleen, another important part in the blue whale’s mouth where 100 people can fit into is the tongue. When feeding, blue whales take in a huge gulp of water which will be filtered out by pushing their elephant-heavy tongue forward and contracting their throat.
Thursday, 12. November 2009, 16:54:28
Besides being threatened by enviromental pollution caused by waste and oil leak, the blue whale is now facing another dangerous kind of pollution, noise pollution. In recent years the increasing use of hi-tech sonar by ships, the noise of propellers, seismic surveys, sea-floor drilling, and low-frequency radio transmissions have made oceans noisier. The growing "acoustic smog" in the world’s oceans, and particularly the waters near popular migration and feeding routes, is interfering with whales’ ability to communicate with songs. Deadly military solar spreads through the oceans, drastically cutting down their ability to communicate, impeding the beasts' ability to navigate and find mates. For example, US Navy, backed-up by a set of eleventh-hour rules, is using sonar during training exercises in all oceans, splitting the whale’s ear. This activity affects tremendously to the whale’s population as whales use their songs to find their mates, if females can no longer hear the singing males through the smog, they lose breeding opportunities and choices.
Thursday, 12. November 2009, 15:59:13
It seems that there is nothing to talk about tanks, school buses, space shuttle orbiters, basketball courts or triceratopses (a kind of three-horn-dinosaurs) if we want to mention some descriptions of a blue whale. However, the fact is that the length of a blue whale is equal to that of 3 M1A1 Abrams tanks (9.8m each), 3 school buses (12m each), a 37.2m space shuttle orbiter, a 28.7m basketball court, 5 great white sharks (6m each) or 3 triceratopses (9m each). To give another confirmation, this giant mammal is as heavy as 5 humpback whales (40 tons each), 30 T. Rex dinosaurs (6.5 tons each), 83 great white sharks (2.4 tons each), 40 elephants (5 tons each), 15 school buses (13 tons each) or 8 DC-9 airplanes (25 tons each). These facts have certainly given us an image of blue whale which is about 30m long and 200 tons heavy. So what does a blue whale look like?
Blue whale is a kind of baleen whales whose body has a shape that reduces drag and is energy efficient for swimming – fusiform or torpedo shape. So why don’t we call them torpedo whales but blue whales? The answer is that their name comes from the steel blue-gray color of their skin. Normally, blue whales have a black and gray skin with a darker dorsal (top) surface than the ventral (bottom) surface which results in the camouflage of this animal. This is to say that predators or prey have less chance to distinguish the whales from the dark ocean. And under the dark skin is the enormous body of the whale. Actually, they are said to be the largest animal in the world which is the second feature besides the color that gives whales the protection from predators. It is also the advantage for whales competing for mates. Furthermore, the whale’s body is quite big in size to produce the metabolic heat that surrounds the smaller surface of it – the skin. Therefore, it is more likely for whales to retain their body heat, which makes it easier for metabolism. And of course, their large size also helps to store energy in the form of blubber which keeps them warm in the cold water.
Thursday, 12. November 2009, 14:59:52
In the dawn of the industrial revolution, because of lacking awareness of ecology, human beings have released large amounts of synthetic chemicals into the environment. PCBs ( poly-chlorinated biphenyls) used widely in industrial application is one of the contaminants which makes blue whale become imminent extinction because it contributes to destroy the food supply for blue whales as well as kill baby blue whales. PCBs maybe suppress the immune system, promote cancer and to interfere with other important biological systems in animals. As we know, blue whales feed almost exclusively on krill-a type of plankton crustacean. That is a type of small shellfish in the ocean that live and received large amounts of contaminants. So, PCBs can cause death a lot of krill. In addition to, most of the contaminants such as PCBs and pesticides that blue whales accumulate, are ingested in their food. Moreover, PCBs is associated with fat and since milk is necessarily high in fat, the neonate receives large amounts of the contaminants when weaning. Especially, contaminant accumulation by calves occurs very quickly because the mother’s milk is very high in fat which is essential for the infant increase its fat stores and grow rapidly. Therefore, when a mother is weaning a calf, she is unloading a large amount of her contaminant burden onto the neonate. It is not good and has huge impacts on the health and development of baby blue whales. A necessary and urgent demand now is solve the problem: what can people do to save blue whales? And it is also significant to raise awareness of people about protecting marine ecosystem.
Wednesday, 11. November 2009, 16:37:19
In the modern life, there are many urgent problems that force humans to find the solution. These are the problems about pollution, environment, population, global warming,…And one of the alarming troubles to human being is the life of species in the ocean. When mentioning marine life, everyone wonders why blue whales have to face to imminent extinction. They don’t understand that because they think that blues whales have an enormous amount and their size and speed are also giant that makes them exist forever. Blue Whales are not easy to catch or kill, so people have used modern technology to kill blue whales. For example, in 1864 the Norwegian-Svend Foyn equipped a steamboat with harpoons specifically designed for catching large whales. Foyn perfected the harpoon gun, and soon several whaling stations were established on the coast of Finnmark in northern .Whaling activities of human beings has had the strong effect to existence of blue whales. They were intensively hunted in 20th century in all the world’s oceans and their population significantly reduced. According to statistics of Office Of Protected Resources NOAA Fisheries, at least 9500 blue whales were taken by commercial whaler throughout the North Pacific between 1910 and 1965, at least 11000 were taken in the North Atlantic from the late 19th to middle 20th centuries. Moreover, there are more than 36000 blue whales were taken by whaling fleets in the Southern Hemisphere from 1904 to 1967, more than 8000 pygmy blue whales were killed by Soviet whaling fleets in the 1960s and 1970s (according to EDGE community- Evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered). And whaling happened in many other areas that make that the species was pushed to the edge of extinction. To prevent the risk of extinction, the International Whaling Commission has promulgated the law banning blue whale hunting. Ignoring that law, some countries still continue hunting blue whales. So, a necessary issue currently is everyone needs to condemn the action of illegal whaling and try to conserve blue whales as well as many other species.
Thursday, 5. November 2009, 12:38:18
Books:
1. Calambokidis, John, and Steiger, Gretchen. Blue Whales. Vancouver: Voyager Press, 1997.
2. Clapham, Phil. Whales of the world. Vancouver: Voyager Press, 2001.
3. Shirihai, Hadoram, and Jarrett, Brett. Whales, Dolphins, and other Marine Mammals of the World. New Jersey: Princeon University Press, 2006.
4. Ellis, Richard. Book of whales. New York: Knopf, 1985.
5. Carwardine, Mark. Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises. 2nd ed. New York: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2002.
Online sources:
1.Gardner, Emily. “Hawaii’s Marine Wildlife: Whales, Dolphins, Turtles, and Seals. A Course of Study.” EarthTrust. 2008. Earth Trust Windward Environmental Center. 29 Oct. 2009. <http://www.earthtrust.org/wlcurric/index.html>
2.“A Nasty Business – why commercial whaling must end.” CampaignWhale. 2006. Campaign Whale. 22 Oct. 2009. <http://www.campaign-whale.org/research-reports/whaling-industry/why-commercial-whaling-must-end>
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