And the date is not insignificant: it marks the moratorium on whaling decreed in 1986 by the Commission Baleinière Internationale to protect hashtag#cetaceans, whose populations have been damaged by decades of intensive hunting.
Here’s a look at some key figures:
🌊 An estimated 3 million whales have been killed by commercial whaling worldwide.
📉 Today, more than 25% of the ~130 species of marine mammals are classified by the IUCN as hashtag#vulnerable, hashtag#endangered or critically endangered – that’s around 35 to 40 threatened species.
This includes iconic species such as the huge blue whale, the Pacific grey whale and the Atlantic right whale, of which only a few hundred individuals remain.
🌀 Commercial hunting may have declined… but the threats are still there:
🚢 hashtag#collisions with vessels;
🎣 hashtag#bycatch in fishing gear;
🔊 hashtag#noise pollution that disrupts their communication and orientation;
🧴 hashtag#plastic and organic pollution that accumulates at all levels of food webs;
🥩 scarcity of food hashtag#resources due to hashtag#overfishing;
🌡️ hashtag#climatechange that disrupts ecosystems….
👉 These combined pressures are weakening already vulnerable species. It is therefore more necessary than ever to step up conservation, awareness-raising and regulatory actions on a global scale 🌍.
Protecting cetaceans means more than just banning hunting: it means rethinking our relationship with the ocean. 🌊
🙏 At Cohabys, we are actively doing our bit to improve knowledge on these species and their habitats, and to link science, public policy and projects at sea to support these developments while respecting these emblematic animals.
🌍 Whether in the tropics, France or the poles, our philosophy is the same: a scientific approach, reliable results, collaboration and transparency to build a sustainable way to uses of the sea together.
