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Get to See a Whale Soon
Get to See a Whale Soon
You may want to describe it to your grandchildren. Many great whales like the humpback have been so brutally massacred by mankind that whalers consider them commercially extinct. Whales are still over-exploited Typical is the blue whale, the largest animal that has ever lived on this earth - 100 feet (30 metres) long en weighing 160 tons. Since 1900 we humans have killed well over 300,000 of them and there are only a few thousand left. Despite international demands to stop the slaughter, whalers - mainly Japanese and Russian - are destroying four other species of great whale; some have already been reduced to 20 per cent of their former population. Whalers can turn to other trades but the great whales can never be recreated. They have much to teach us These peaceful creatures have highly developed brains and close family and social organisation. They can communicate over great distances, and dive to great depths. We cannot yet explain their full role in the ecology of the seas, but if they are wiped out and we find their role was a vital one, it will be too late. The World Wildlife Fund is campaigning to save the life and resources of the seas - for our own sakes and those of our children. |