Cetacean Conservation and Management Strategies

Abstract

This chapter offers some personal thoughts and reflections on strategies taken to manage human activities and limit or lessen their impacts on whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Overkill in one form or another, whether by targeted hunting or by accidental mortality from entanglement in fishing gear or vessel strikes, has been the main driver of cetacean population declines, and measures taken to prevent or strictly limit the killing have proven to be the best ways to achieve conservation and recovery. The cessation of commercial whaling, for example, occurred in the nick of time for some of the large whales. However, the numbers of North Atlantic and North Pacific right whales had been driven so low by whaling that ongoing mortality caused by other human activities has been enough to keep those species on the brink. Although the Yangtze River dolphin (baiji) has gone extinct and efforts to save the vaquita have fallen short, some progress has been made at buying time for Yangtze finless porpoises through a combination of ex situ management and fishery closures; and for large whales, through disentanglement programs and initial attempts to control ship traffic. The long-term dedication of exceptional people who function as ‘champions’ of the animals is often an essential ingredient for successful conservation. It should never be assumed that the task of conserving cetaceans is one that can be completed, with needed actions taken only once. Rather, the actions must be at least overseen and monitored and, if and when necessary, repeated again and again.