Whales have been hunted by humans for thousands of years. Their flesh, oil and blubber have been variously employed for food, to make wax for candles and to provide fuel for lamps. This kind of exploitation is no longer needed today. Modern society gets its protein and its lighting from other, more accessible sources. Hence the decision by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to place a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.
Given that many species had already been brought close to extinction, the move was long overdue. Three decades later, the blue whale, the humpback whale, the North Atlantic right whale and many other great cetaceans are still struggling to rise out of the critically endangered state to which hunting had reduced them. Had whaling not been halted 30 years ago, many of these great creatures would no longer be swimming in our oceans. The world that we currently inhabit would have been greatly impoverished.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2RiVAqP
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