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Whales & Whaling
Factfile |
 Whales & Whaling |
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Introduction |
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Whales are large, magnificent mammals, totally adapted to a life at sea. Members of the same marine order as dolphins and porpoises, they are the only mammals, other than manatees (seacows), that live their entire lives in the water, and the only mammals that have adapted to life in the open oceans.
Humpback whale breaching
While whaling did not start in Antarctica until 1904, mankind has had a relationship with whales for thousands of years. The oldest records of whale hunts are rock carvings in South Korea that date back to 6000 BC and although whale meat has little commercial value today, it is still considered a delicacy, particularly in Norway and Japan.
Historically, as the pattern of exploitation changed over the years, so different species became the focus of the whalers, targeting the largest and slowest whale species first, demolishing one species after another until the whale population became decimated.
Today, the International Whaling Commission, (IWC) set up in 1946 by the United Nations International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) regulates modern whaling and while recent scientific surveys suggest that humans and marine mammals can co-exist, there still remains much to be done to ensure that the global whale population doesn’t become extinct.
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