ExtinctMammals
Extinct Marine Mammals
Past Extinctions
Causes
Effects
On Humans
• Overexploitation seems to be the main issue – loss of fish from overfishing and poor practices can destroy ways of life, jobs, industries, etc.
• Marine mammals are often caught as bycatch
• Unregulated harvest
• new and innovative solutions to this problem are required to take account of the socioeconomic conditions experienced by fishermen” (Merritt)
• Issue of regulation versus deregulation – looking at pros and cons of regulation seeing as it costs a lot, but is significant in saving a species
o Regulation = politically unpopular (Merritt)
• Poverty and the collapse of other industries can lead to abrupt changes in local fishing conditions – may start to prey on marine mammals once their value as food and bait is noticed
o Unregulated and unsustainable (Merritt)
o Peruvian dolphins; anchovy fisheries collapsed so people started hunting dolphins; led to depletion in population (Merritt)