WHALES AS M ENDANGERED SPECIES JAN MARTIN 97 WHALES AS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES BY JAN MARTIN Submitted to Professor Frank E. Skillern Texas Tech School of Law January 9, 1978 WHALES AS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES Introduction I. The Whale Classification Feeding Habits and Migration Recruitment II. Whaling History Technological Development Japan's Role Need for Regulation I'll. Whaling Regulation 1931 Convention for the Regulation of Whaling Blue Whale Unit 19^6 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling International Whaling Commission Federal Statutes IV. Other Considerations Economic Costs of Whaling Minimization of Harm and Ecology Conclusion 99 WHALES AS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES So little is known of the whale that it is difficult to be certain of many things. Greater knowledge is possessed by man now than ever before, yet in relation to knowledge of other animals it is comparatively little. Many conferences have been held on the regulation of whaling and there are two international conventions in force, not to mention several Federal statutes. The study of whales and whaling unfolds multiple aspects of the problems which go hand in hand with any attempt at conservation of whales or regulation of whaling. 1. The Whale According to scientific nomenclature whales cannot be correctly termed an endangered species because whales are part of the Order Cetacea. Nonetheless, there are eight species of whales listed as endangered in the Federal 2 . 3 Register as ordered by the Endangered Species Act of 1973. including the Blue Whale, Bowhead Whale, Fin Whale, Gray Whale, Humpback Whale, Right Whale, Sei Whale and Sperm Ll Whale. The fact that these great whales are included on this list means that neither the animals nor their products may be imported into the United States.J McVay defines an endangered species by stating "a species is endangered when the exploitation rate is so 100 2 high that, on the average over time, each adult less than 6 replaces itself in the next generation." The above listed animals have been subjected to such exploitation. These whales are commonly known as the great whales or larger Cetaceans and have been the basis of the international whaling industry. Cetaceans are mammals, though often referred to as fish by whalers/'7 The order is divided into two distinct suborders, Mystacoeti and Odontoceti. The seven whales listed above besides the sperm whale all fall into the first suborder and are known as baleen whales. Suborder Odontoceti encompass sperm whales, porpoises and dolphins, members of this group are known as toothed whales. In the Suborder Mystacoeti the whales 8o f the family Balaen- opteridae are referred as rorquals, and are characterized by the grooves running from the lower lip to the chest. The blue whale, fin whale, sei whale and. the humpback fall into this category. The blue whale has been named the mainstay of whaling because it is the largest of the whales, yielding more profit for whalers. Little is known of whales as compared to other marine mammals due to the difficulty of intense research. The amount of and type of food in addition to their size makes 1 0 it impossible to keep a great whale m captivity for study. Sperm whales feed mainly on squid which is one reason they spend most of their lives in tropical seas. Squid are abundant where cool and warm waters meet. Baleen whales possess plates of whalebone instead of teeth limiting their diet to small sea animals-, i ankton. and phytoplankton, which can be swallowed without chewing. A major part of their diet' consists of krill, small crustaceans. Diet in part controls the migration of baleen whales. The summer months are spent in polar waters, feeding, the whales migrating before the ice pack expands and cuts off the open sea and food supply. The whales travel toward 11 warm waters for mating or to give birth. Krill is abundant in cold water due to the abundance of carbon dioxide, oxygen and other inorganic nutrients which nourish diatoms. Diatoms are small plants on which 12 krill feed. Damage to the environment is a result when a food chain is severely disrupted, but the probabilty and nature of the damage remains unknown. A species of whale will separate into stocks. A stock is a group within which whales live and breed. A species can be termed a group potentially able to interbreed, but a stock is a population unto itself. Stocks are geograph- ically and behaviorially seperate. For example, a stock of blue whales migrates to the Arctic and another migrates to the Antarctic during the summer. Due to the difference in seasons between the1 3hemisphere s these whales will probably never intermingle.x Baleen whales are found in groups of mixed sex while sperm whales are found in polygamous groups of one male and about ten females. Among baleen whales the sise difference between male and female whales is minimal making it useless to set quotas by sex, however, female sperm whales are often ten feet or more shorter than males, making it possible to set quotas by sex. ' Consequently, males without harems can be killed without affecting the recruitment rate drastically (in theory). Recruitment is "the quantity natrually added to the stock each year to build it up to replace what has been lost through natural deaths or catching" while "sustainable yield is ... the catch which can be taken without affecting 1J 5 the level of the stock." The rate at which stocks reproduce is a major factor in deciding whether a stock or a species dies out. Two principles apply theoretically to the relationship between population size and recruitment. The first is a tendency for the recruitment rate to increase as population size decreases, making-up for the loss. However, the second principle refers to a critical population level. At this level the recruitment rate ceases to increase as the population becomes smaller? when a population reaches this level extinction is inevitable. Each species has a different critical population level, whether several hundred or thousand. II. Whaling Aside from several major developments, the factory ship in 1905. and harpoon with the exploding head in the 1860's, the whaling industry has not undergone a great 17 number of changes since its beginning. The Basques began whaling from land bases in small boats during the twelfth century. The right whale was the first target because 103 its migration route is along the European coast and it is a slow swimmer. By the fifteenth century they had built 1 8 larger ships and pelagic whaling began. Although Arctic whaling during the early seventeenth century was known as 19 the Golden Age of Whaling, y the discovery of Antarctic stocks produced the largest catches ever. Whaling in the United States began in the seventeenth century? early whalers also exploited the right whale. The value of sperm whales was20 discovered in 17-12, providing stimulation to the industry. As the Basques, the Americans killed the whale which was the easiest to kill first then moved to the open seas. The sperm whale became the support of the American industry which virtually ended ?1 in 1925s ~ though Eskimos continue whaling. Rorquals became significant in the twentieth century due to advanced technology. Whalers long knew about them but they swam faster than ships could sail and sank when killed. The development of the steam powered catcher boats, harpoons with expd^liding heads fired from cannons,.^and„a methoit possibld of efillin to comerciallg the carcass^Wity marketh rorqualsair to .floa 22 t Ththee mAntarcti made c was a virtually untouched source of rorquals in the early 23 years of this century. J Rorquals could always be found during the Antarctic summer because of their food supply requirements. For the whaling season of 1913-1^ "the Antarctic catch was eighty percent of the world catch and more than three times the world catch ten years before. Whale oil production peaked in 1931 but, the largest amd most profitable whales had been overfished? an increased catch never produc 2k- as much marketable product. The Japanese also have a whaling history. Like the Basques and New England whalers they were able to operate a land based industry by killing gray whales and others that passed close to shore. In the seventeent2 5 h century they developed large nets to catch whales. In modern whaling Japan takes a large share of the established quotas. As countries like Great Britain and Norway decreased their fleets' size and later ceased whaling, Japan bought their ships and a share of their quotas. Using these quotas plus its own, Japan has been able to maintain a 2large 6 r catch and still remain within agreed regulation. As the Antarctic stocks dwindled, the North Pacific regained some importance as a whaling ground. A special meeting was called in 1966 for the nations involved, including Japan, Canada, U.S.S.R. and the United States. Canada and the United States were involve27 d because of the whaling done by Indians and Eskimos. The urgent need for stringent regulations is exhibited by a few facts. The bowhead, right and gray whales were over exploited before and during the ninteenth century; the blue whale whale has almost been wiped out. If we term the existing whale stocks as the principal, a certain number of whales can be harvested without depleting the population; this harvest can be termed interest. While the principal is undisturbed interest will be produced, 105 -2?- but if both the interest and principal are used the resource will become depleted and extinct. Regulation should preserve , 28 the principal.