Reflective Journal 3 : Hunting of Whales, Dolphins & Habitat Degradation

Dolphins and small whales are killed and used for food, oil or other traditional uses and their products cannot legally be traded. This has proven difficult to regulate and some trade in derivative products still occurs. Many of the species involved in subsistence hunting are considered endangered, certainly at the local level, if not in the wider world. Legislation to allow subsistence hunting and to meet cultural needs frequently results in a loophole, which may be exploited by the unscrupulous.
The greatest contemporary threat to dolphins and other cetaceans will be habitat degradation through pollution and climate change. Heavy metals and pesticides in their body tissues which has deleterious effects on their ability to reproduce and on their immune system integrity.
Most of these pollutants do not readily degrade or if they do, take a very long time to do so rendering the damage inflicted long lasting. Climate change due to global warming will have far reaching and profound affects on cetacean populations in general but particularly dolphins and whales. Reduction in sea ice coverage in our polar regions may cause significant drops in the levels of algae which feed krill leading to a reduction in the numbers of these small shrimp like creatures.
Reduction in sea ice coverage in our polar regions may cause significant drops in the levels of algae which feed krill leading to a reduction in the numbers of these small shrimp like creatures. Krill is the basis of the food chain on which many species of cetaceans rely, along with birds and many fish species, reductions in the levels of krill may well cause catastrophic decline across a broad range of species.

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Takenfrom > http://whalewatchwestcork.com/dolphin-conservation.html
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