THE A TO Z OF WHALES

A to Z of WHALES

CETACEANS ARE WONDERFU L MARINE MAMMALS THAT ALSO REPRESENT $DOLLAR VALUE AND FOOD IN A WORLD WITH FINITE RESURCES

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Right whales or black whales are three species of large baleen whales of the genus Eubalaena: the North Atlantic right whale (E. glacialis), the North Pacific right whale (E. japonica) and the Southern right whale (E. australis).

When Herman Melville penned his leviathan volume in 1850, he had no idea of the amount of money his story about the whaling industry, Moby-Dick, would generate in the next 100 or so years ahead - or the stir it would cause.

But whaling was a $multi-million dollar industry in America and across the globe, as these magnificent marine mammals represent a floating food store in the 2020s, but an energy source from body oils before petroleum came online.

A book cover with stunning artwork, [slightly] exaggerating the sperm whale in size. The book requires some reading, it is a marathon challenge that will tax the brain and patience.

At the height of the whaling golden years, whales were categorized according to their value, blubber yield and ease of capture, without sinking. The Sperm Whale was the most highly prized.

Today, whales are a protected species with very limited whaling allowed, but which quotas are routinely ignored by whaling nations, contrary to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling - that is unfortunately not legally binding.

Discarded fishing gear is one of the most pressing problems facing whales at this time, potentially far more dangerous than the harpoons of all those bloodthirsty whalers. After fishing nets, plastic waste is next on the list of harmful substances, where marine litter is toxic - and those toxins bio-accumulate in whales, that eat large volumes of krill and fish that is also swimming in micro particles that they ingest.