The Complete Guide How YOU can Save the Dolphins and the Whales

Ocean pollution from toxic wastes,overfishing, destructive fishing methods and senseless slaughter are ruiningthe oceans and severely endangering the dolphins and whales and other marinespecies which have existed for millions of years.

Toxic waste, trash and plastic debris are becomingfloating garbage dumps and overcoming the carbon-dioxide absorbing plankton,killing the turtles, birds, dolphins and whales and degrading their habitats.

We cannot afford to sit back and ignore thedestruction. These are intelligent creatures which evoke a sense of wonder andawe, and our world will be far dimmer without their playful antics and intricatewhale songs.

Take action now. Read below about how to protectthem and protect your environment at the same time. Raise your voices withconviction or lend support to those who fight the good fight. Find out how tocreate an outcry so loud it cannot be ignored. Not a second longer. Please bookmark this page for future reference and share through your social networks and email, we MUST spread the word. And please remember to sign the petitions found throughout the article.

Dolphins are known to be extremely intelligent and humpback whales communicate through unique and intricate songs that may last for more than 10 minutes. What is striking is that these whale songs change over time and new phrases are added and old melodies discarded. A whale song may be similar in an entire ocean even if thousands of miles are separating the communities. The humpback whales have also shown themselves capable of composing new songs based on the melodies of distant whales.

In the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the humpbacks have swapped their own melodies for those of wandering cousins from the Indian Oceans, possibly to prevent their own females from getting attracted to the wandering Indian Ocean humpback whales.

We are still not sure while humpback whales sing or what do their songs mean, but we have to make sure that they are around for us to find out. To listen to some whale songs, the intricate whistles, beeps and lowing, check out the Ocean Mammal Institute (Link Below). It will melt your heart.

Ocean pollution is causing us to worry about mercury levels in the salmon we buy at the supermarkets; even whale and dolphin meat are found to have high levels of PCBs. The cetaceans among the top ten most toxic marine animals are: the bottle nose dolphin, the Orca or killer whale, Risso’s dolphin and the common dolphin and beluga whales. Beluga whales are so contaminated that their carcasses have to be handled as if they were toxic hazards.

Thousands of dolphins die each year through drowning, torn fins in the North Atlantic as a result of a fishing method called pair trawling where large nets are dragged to catch fish for our dining tables. The fishing by-catch which are thrown back dead into the oceans include young fish common, white-sided and bottlenose dolphins and whales, albatrosses and turtles. Several countries such as the UK have banned pair trawling but international enforcement remains weak.

Another deadly fishing method which has a high casualty rate of by-catch is long-line fishing in which a main line as long as 60 miles, with secondary lines, are fitted with barbed hooks and dragged through waters. Unfortunately, turtles, dolphins, whales, seabirds and sharks are caught up in this type of fishing. Basically this amounts to mass slaughter in the oceans.

Due to these and other destructive fishing methods, not only are fishing stocks being rapidly depleted, marine species such as seals, whales and dolphins have little left to eat. Humpack whales in Canada’s Bay of Fundy are losing out to fishing fleets in the competition for herring. The North Atlantic right whale is now on the brink of extinction because of constantly being entangled in fishing gear.

Organizations such as the World Wildlife Organization are working with proactive fisheries to develop sustainable fishing methods to maintain a healthy marine ecosystem and to ensure a long-term sustainable food supply without negative impact on marine habitats and cetaceans.

Plastic bags, bottles, bottle caps, cups, plates, packing pellets – you see them washed up on the beaches, but what about the oceans? Studies show that plastics, which are nondegradable, are breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces, and samples from the oceans show that plastics fragments are six times more prevalent than plankton.

These bits of plastic are mistaken by birds and fish as krill. Birds either feed them down to their young or the fish which swallow the plastic are in turn consumed by higher-level marine species such as whales and dolphins. These plastic contaminants are stored in the livers and fatty tissues of the dolphins and whales, causing hormonal disruptions in the cetaceans.

For a provocative and shocking talk on the plastic soup dump in the oceans, listen to Capt. Charles Moore of the Agalita Marine Research (video below). It is sobering and should make us sit up on what we can and should do to prevent this from getting worse, and to stop the ocean pollution at its source.

Despite years of protection and bans on commercial whaling,  several whale species remain endangered, as many as seven out of 13.  Eventhough the Southern Ocean has been declared a whale sanctuary, more than 1,000 whales each year are being killed. The gray whale in the northwestern pacific is on the critically endangered list because its feeding grounds are being polluted by intensive oil and gas exploration and developments. A gray whale which recently died off Seattle was shown to have plastic bags, surgical gloves, duct tape, and even sweat pants in its stomach!

It has been discovered that even though the demand for whale meat has dropped dramatically in Japan and less than 5% of the population wants it, the Japanese whalers are breaking moratorium rules by catching whales under the auspices of research. Two Japanese activists, called the Tokyo Two, are on trial in Japan right now for uncovering government corruption in the whaling industry. Follow their trial and show your support for their work (link below).

Although the drive hunt is banned, pilot whales are still being killed in what appears to be a coming of age ritual called the grindradap in the Faroe Islands, a Danish protectorate. A Faroese website says that the pilot whales are killed for food and are a part of their national diet. Pilot whales do not fall under any whaling quotas but recent news that the pilot whales are contaminated with mercury and other PCBs may lead to this practice being stopped. 

Every year in October, the water in the bay of a small fishing village in Japan is filled with red from the slaughter of dolphins. The Taji fishermen herd dolphins into the by banging large drums in the water, pen off the numbers they want for aquariums, dolphin swim programs and for dolphin meat and kill the rest. This continues till February for dolphins and till April for small whales such as the pilot whales. At the end, tens of thousands of dolphins are killed – each year.

This dolphin hunting is the subject of the Oscar winning documentary “The Cove”. Ric O’ Barry, who was featured in the Cove, is the director of a campaign to stop the dolphin kill in Japan. 

Taji is the one village that is still sanctioned for dolphin hunting. International protests have previously worked on the Japanese government to withdraw sanctions from other villages. For example, in Futo, dolphin fishermen have turned into guides for dolphin watching.

BlueVoice, an environmental group, has been making films and documentaries to end the killing of dolphins and whales for more than 20 years. Its website, Bluevoice.org, formed with actor and environmentalist, Ted Danson, brings to us the web films, podcasts and latest news on dolphins and whales including humpback hunting in Greenland, and a Matt Damon narration of their efforts to stop the ritual slaughter of dolphins. BlueVoice is also part of the protest against the dolphin slaughter at Taji – support these conservation efforts by signing a petition to the Japanese government. 

We need to establish marine reserves or no-take zones to protect the cetaceans and other marine species. Establishing marine reserves is the key and perhaps our only hope to replenishing our oceans through preventing further degradation of their habitats. We need to set aside a minimum of 20% to 50% of our oceans for these endangered cetaceans and other species.

Take action by raising your voice; Greenpeace, Humane Society and World Wildlife Fund are just some of the many environmental groups bringing this issue to public consciousness. You can show support by signing one of these petitions (links to the right ->) to call on the world’s governments and the United Nations to establish marine sanctuaries. The Humane Society is calling for the setting up of a global whale sanctuary as one of its “Take Action” Campaigns.

One of the most active environmental groups, or policing organization as it describes itself is the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (link below). This year, three of the Sea Shepherd’s ships managed to cut the Japanese whaling kill quota by more than half, saving 528 whales, their biggest save to date. The Sea Shepherd had its beginnings in 1977, has since sailed more than 200 voyages around the world has been known to ram whalers, negotiate with dolphin hunters at Iki island in Japan, stop the Irish seal hunt and is tireless in disrupting the Canadian harp seal hunting.

We can all do our part to help in the conservation and protection of dolphins and whales. Stop senseless killing, make choices to buy biodegradable products, recycle rather than throw away, and one day, our oceans will once again filled with dolphins at play and whales singing their astonishing and haunting songs.