Relating his experiences caring for endangered whales, a veterinarian
and marine scientist shows we can all share in the salvation of these
imperiled animals. The image most of us have of whalers includes
harpoons and intentional trauma. Yet eating commercially caught
seafood leads to whales’ entanglement and slow death in rope and
nets, and the global shipping routes that bring us readily available
goods often lead to death by collision. We—all of us—are whalers,
marine scientist and veterinarian Michael J. Moore contends. But we do
not have to be. Drawing on over forty years of fieldwork with
humpback, pilot, fin, and, in particular, North Atlantic right
whales—a species whose population has declined more than 20 percent
since 2017—Moore takes us with him as he performs whale necropsies
on animals stranded on beaches, in his independent research alongside
whalers using explosive harpoons, and as he tracks injured whales to
deliver sedatives. The whales’ plight is a complex, confounding, and
disturbing one. We learn of existing but poorly enforced conservation
laws and of perennial (and often failed) efforts to balance the push
for fisheries profit versus the protection of endangered species
caught by accident. But despite these challenges, Moore’s tale is an
optimistic one. He shows us how technologies for ropeless fishing and
the acoustic tracking of whale migrations make a dramatic difference.
And he looks ahead with hope as our growing understanding of these
extraordinary creatures fuels an ever-stronger drive for change. For
more information on Moore’s book and research, please visit his
webpage at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
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The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780226803180
Publisert
2021
Utgiver
University of Chicago Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter