Whale conservation

Conservation initiatives focus on various strategies such as legal protections, habitat preservation, and mitigating threats from fishing gear entanglements and marine pollution.

With an emphasis on international cooperation and scientific research, these efforts aim to maintain marine biodiversity and support the ecological balance vital to ocean health.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) notes that the Atlantic population of gray whales was made extinct around the turn of the eighteenth century.

[13] IUCN has recorded studies showing that more than 40,000 individuals are present in the North Atlantic Ocean around Greenland, Iceland, and Norway.

Anti-whaling groups say this method of hunting is cruel, particularly if carried out by inexperienced gunners, because a whale can take several minutes or even hours to die.

[37] He said that the average time taken for a whale to spunk up after being shot in the blowhole, was the same as or less than that of animals killed by big game hunters on safari.

Pro-whalers also say that the free-roaming lifestyle of whales followed by a quick death is less cruel than the long-term suffering of factory-farmed animals.

The IWC requires information on population structure, abundance and prior whaling history, which anti-whalers argue can be obtained through non-lethal means.

The age of a whale can be reliably gathered by examining the ear plug in the head of the dead animal, which accumulates as annual growth rings.

According to lethal-sampling opponent Nick Gales, age data is not needed to establish a catch limit for whaling within the framework of the Revised Management Procedure (RMP) computer modeling, which is the stated goal of the Japanese research.

Opponents of lethal sampling state that dietary habits can be ascertained by biopsies as well as collecting feces from living whales.

Although lethal sampling is a heavily debated issue, the IWC Scientific Committee acknowledges the usefulness of the data from JARPA.

[46] Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd raised the idea of a proposal to take the Japanese whaling issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with an aim of stopping Japan from conducting scientific research.

The New Zealand government then lodged a "Declaration of Intervention" with the ICJ on February 6, 2013,[49] in which it deemed Japan as ineligible for a Special Permit that would allow whaling on the basis of scientific research.

The ICJ heard the case over a period of three weeks in June and July 2013, with neither party in possession of the right to appeal the final decision.

Also raised in conservation efforts is the question of cetacean intelligence, the level of suffering which the animals undergo when caught and killed, and the importance that the mammals play in the ecosystem and a healthy marine environment.

This argument is particularly contentious in Iceland, as it has among the most-developed whale-watching operations in the world and the hunting of minke whales resumed in August 2003.

"[52] Whalers say that whaling is an essential condition for the successful operation of commercial fisheries, and thus the plentiful availability of food from the sea that consumers have become accustomed to.

Professor Daniel Pauly,[54] Director of the Fisheries Center at the University of British Columbia weighed into the debate in July 2004 when he presented a paper to the 2004 meeting of the IWC in Sorrento.

More recent studies have also concluded that there are several factors contributing to the decline in fish stocks, such as pollution and habitat loss.

[58] In addition to krill, minke whales are known to eat a wide range of fish species including capelin, herring, sand lance, mackerel, gadoids, cod, saithe and haddock.

[62] The red meat and blubber of (toothed) long-finned pilot whales in the Faroe Islands show high toxin levels,[66] which has a detrimental effect on those who eat it.

Fishing gear entanglements currently accounts for 82% of documented North Atlantic right whale population mortalities, while the remaining 18% are caused by ship strikes.

Neptune's Navy, the name Sea Shepherd refers to their ships, aim to intervene and prevent whaling activities and other forms of poaching to protect marine life.

The AOCN aims to bring together individuals and organisations from across the Atlantic Ocean region, working toward the conservation and protection of whales and dolphins.

The AOCN aims to be a free platform to promote activities and enlist support; volunteers, funding and expert advice for the organisations within the network.