Learning More About Threats to Whales

Unfortunately, despite popular opinion, the whales are not yet saved. Even though there has been a moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986, large numbers of whales are still being killed for so-called scientific purposes. As scientific whaling continues, the work of Song of the Whale team is important, in demonstrating and promoting the fact that we do not need to kill whales to study them.

Globally, there are also an ever-increasing number of man-made threats that face whales, dolphins and porpoises and their marine habitats. These include ship strikes, accidental entanglement in fishing gear, pollution, habitat destruction and disturbance from noise. Human activities threaten the very existence of some highly endangered species, and pose conservation and welfare threats to populations and individuals. It is vital to improve understanding and raise awareness of all these issues both with the decision makers of today, and the decision makers of the future. We cannot afford to pause in our efforts to save whales and their ocean habitats.

IFAW is currently working on a number of solutions to some of the problems faced by these magnificent, elusive mammals and their critical habitats (that must be employed if we are to preserve these gentle giants):

Raising awareness of the effects of potential man-made sources of disturbance such as military sonar and other types of intense underwater noise on marine mammals and ecosystems.
Deploying acoustic buoys in shipping lanes and critical habitat to transmit real-time information on the presence of north Atlantic right whales. This groundbreaking research will potentially allow ship traffic to be re-routed in order to reduce the likelihood of ship strikes.
Learning more about the distribution and abundance of little known populations under threat, including the vaquita in Mexico, harbour porpoises of the Baltic Sea, Eastern Pacific gray whales, Mediterranean sperm whales and beaked whales.
Baseline surveys, training and public education in support of the designation of whale sanctuaries and protected habitats (for example, in the Mediterranean and off Ireland).

The more the Song of the Whale team learns about whales, the more likely we are to preserve whales such as the minke for future generations. Photo © IFAW