ExtinctMammals
Extinct Marine Mammals
Past Extinctions
Causes
• 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)