Pictures: Dolphins and Whales Hunted Despite Protection
"Unicorn of the Sea"
Photograph by Staffan Widstrand, Corbis
Successful hunters defin a narwhal in Qaanaaq, Greenland. In addition to its meat, indigenous peoples across the Arctic hunt the narwhal for its skin, which is an important source of vitamin C, and for its long tusk, which once earned the animal the moniker "unicorn of the sea."
During Europe's Middle Ages narwhal tusks were worth ten times their weight in gold—and today they can still fetch hunters more than $1,000 apiece.
(See National Geographic magazine's Hunting Narwhals.)
Narwhal numbers across the Arctic aren't well known but the animals aren't believed to be at risk of extinction. Nonetheless the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) warns that future extinction could be possible if the trade in valuable narwhal ivory isn't closely monitored and controlled. Already, some regional populations are in serious trouble, including those along Greenland's west coast, where narwhals are disappearing under catch limits that many marine scientists insist are far too high.
—Brian Handwerk
Small Whales Lack Protection
Photograph by Francois Xavier Pelletier, Sygma/Corbis
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) does not regulate hunts of pilot whales like these animals taken in the North Atlantic's Faroe Islands. And despite the IWC's commercial whaling moratorium on larger species, several nations still hunt them in significant numbers, including Japan, Norway, and Iceland.
World Wildlife Fund policy analyst Leigh Henry attended the IWC's 64th annual meeting this June and July and reports that another nation looks likely to join that group soon.
"South Korea stated their intent to propose conducting a scientific whaling program at the 2013 meeting, and that is a huge deal," she said. "It's essentially another country planning to unilaterally conduct whaling with no oversight from the IWC."
In the 1970s and 1980s, before the commercial moratorium, South Korea harvested some 1,000 whales a year, Henry added. "They've respected the moratorium and haven't taken any whales since," she added.
"But they have understandably become frustrated watching Norway, Iceland, and Japan conduct their whaling. South Korea has been a good player and they've followed all the rules but after they put this proposal forward they can largely do what they'd like because the IWC doesn't have to OK scientific whaling."
Killing Dolphins
Photograph by David Doubilet, National Geographic
Fishermen at Futo, Japan's 1994 dolphin hunt used boats and nets to herd dolphin to inshore coves for the slaughter. Futo ended the annual practice for a number of years in the mid 2000s but has since resumed this type of traditional hunt, which also continues in other Japanese communities.
Taiji's similar dolphin hunt drew international attention and much outrage when it was depicted in the 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove. While activists campaign to end such hunts, Japanese government quotas allow fishermen to continue so that animals can be captured for the aquarium trade—and slaughtered for their meat.
"There are some countries that eat cows, and there are other countries that eat whales or dolphins," Yutaka Aoki, fisheries division director at Japan's Foreign Ministry, told the Associated Press after the film won its Academy Award in 2010. "A film about slaughtering cows or pigs might also be unwelcome to workers in that industry."
Whales in the Crosshairs
Photograph by Staffan Widstrand, Corbis
Sergey Puchineot, an indigenous hunter of the Chukot region in Russia's Far East, opens fire on a gray whale with a Russian Army-issue semiautomatic weapon. The indigenous peoples of Chukot and Washington State are allowed to take Eastern North Pacific gray whales under the IWC's aboriginal subsistence catch limits—a total of 620 animals between 2008 and 2012.
Under current IWC regulations, aboriginal subsistence whaling is also permitted for Denmark (Greenland's fin, humpback, and minke whales), the Russian Federation (Siberia's gray and bowhead whales), St. Vincent and The Grenadines (Bequia, humpback whales), and the United States (Alaska's bowhead and gray whales).
Death in the Southern Ocean
Photograph by Kate Davison, Eyevine/Redux
Japanese whalers aboard the Kyo Maru Number One landed these whales in the Southern Ocean during the 2005-06 season—and did so despite the determined efforts of activists who used their own vessels to try to thwart the hunt.
The Japanese annually kill many whales in waters the IWC designates as the Southern Ocean Sanctuary—some 19 million square miles (50 million square kilometers) of Antarctic waters where most of the world's whales feed. The whalers do this work in the name of science.
Butchering Their Catch
Photograph by Koichi Kamoshida, Getty Images
Japanese whalers butcher their catch in Chiba, Japan, on July 29, 2005.
Japan claims its "scientific whaling" obeys international law, but it does not honor its intent, according to governments and organizations that have filed protests, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union, and the World Wildlife Fund. "There's no need in the 21st century for lethal research," Henry said. "They can get the same information from nonlethal research technologies."
Traditional Dolphin Hunt
Photograph by George S. Blonsky
A young boy from Kontu, Papua New Guinea, sits with a pair of speared dolphins while watching the village men continue their traditional hunt in the waters off New Ireland's reef. Marine life has long been an essential source of nourishment here and hunts like this are rooted in ancient tradition.
Islanders still practice the skills of past generations, rooted in spirituality and understanding of dolphin behavior, which allow them to hunt and kill these creatures using hand-paddled canoes, bamboo poles, and banging rocks that disrupt dolphin communication.
Deadly Bycatch
Photograph by Pete Oxford, Minden Pictures/Getty Images
This dolphin was a victim of bycatch near the small fishing village of Lavanono on Madagascar's southern coast. Incidental capture by fisheries is one of the greatest threats to dolphins and porpoises.
Gill nets are a major problem in many areas, including Madagascar. Such nets are anchored to the sea floor and buoyant at the top—creating a vertical wall of mesh netting that cetaceans have difficulty detecting with their echolocation navigation systems. Dolphins often die when entangled in such fishing gear.
Bones of Past Hunts
Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic
Heaps of beluga whale bones on a Svalbard beach bear witness to a whaling heyday long past. The small, social white whales commonly swim in Arctic and subarctic waters where they are still targeted by indigenous people and some larger fishing operations—but in Svalbard they are protected.
Extensive beluga hunting began here in the 18th century and continued unabated until Norway protected belugas here in 1961. In the past four decades the Svalbard population has been bouncing back.
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