WhoaitsZ

Excuse the length of this post, but it being such a touchy subject and one close to my heart, I wanted to do it right. I did half an hour or so research through Google and here are some things I found. I have the links and the info pertaining to the subject. Follow the links for full reports.

And to Antagony, I agree that societies should no be bother unless the threaten life of humans or endangered animals. Once the animals are gone they will never, ever be back. Its like someone posted a month or so about trees. No, it is not possible to live without cutting trees for shelter/paper and so on, yet we can cut less and lay off the endangered ones. If species A is almost extinct, even though I see as wrong personally to kill whales, I say let them kill from species (insert whale here)B that is not endangered.

Morally and personally I hate the idea altogether, but on a world’s scale my personal feelings mean nothing. But speaking for the planet we have got to step on toes sometimes to make sure they do not go extinct.

So, if it means disrupting a society/culture then so be it. If I could do something besides allow extinction I would. It sucks to play the role of someone who can interfere with a culture but if we don’t want them to vanish we have no choice.

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http://www.ifawct.org/whaledb/whale12.htm

Mortality The life span of the Bryde’s whale is unknown. Bryde's whales are sometimes preyed upon by killer whales. Distribution In the western Pacific, Bryde’s whale occurs from Japan to New Zealand, and in the eastern Pacific, from Baja California (Mexico) to Chile. In the North-east Pacific, they move between Bonin Islands and the coast of Japan, west Kyushu, and further north. In the Atlantic, the species is reported from Virginia to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, south to Brazil. In the east, reports range from the Canaries and Morocco south to the Cape of Good Hope. In the Indian Ocean, their north-south range is from the Persian Gulf to the Cape of Good Hope, and from Burma to Australia. Population In the western North Pacific, it is estimated that between 1970 and 1980 there were about 18,000 Bryde’s whale. There may be around 90,000 world-wide. Habitat Bryde’s whale is essentially a tropical and subtropical species, but may be found in some slightly colder waters. They generally inhabit waters of more than 15 to 20 degrees centigrade, between 40 degrees north and 40 degrees south, except where there are warm water intrusions such as the Kuroshio current. They may be found in both coastal and offshore waters.
Reproduction Females attain sexual maturity at a length of about 12 m and at an age of about 10 years. Males become sexually mature at between 9 and 13 years and between 12 and 13 m in length. Studies of Bryde’s whales in the Gulf of California indicate that they breed throughout the year. It seems that, unlike other rorqual whales, Brydes whales does not have a well-defined breeding season in most areas. The gestation period is thought to be about 12 months, and lactation may last about 6 months.
Conservation Bryde’s whales were hunted by Taiwanese whalers in the Western Pacific in the 1970’s and 1980’s. They are regularly captured in the artisanal whale hunt of the Philippines and probably in Indonesia.
Little is known about the status or abundance of this species, or the effect that commercial whaling has had on the population.


so imagine 300 a year vs an estimate of 20k. that could be 3,000 deaths and 3,000 less births worse case scenario. So by 20 years they’d have to stop or in 30 to 40 years they will cease to exist.

Again I don’t want to upset people. But if I have to it bothers me not. I have no choice, so if it comes to extinction vs doing ‘the right thing’ for people, I’m gonna go with the whales. They are innocent bystandards / victims. Can’t we justify life over disgruntling people?


http://www.ifaw.org/page.asp?unitid=372







Scientific name: Balaenoptera acutorostrata; Balaenoptera bonaerensis

Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Family: Balaenopteridae
Genus: Balaenoptera
Species: acutorostrata; bonaerensis

Physical description
The minke (pronounced "min-key") whale is the smallest member of the family Balaenopteridae. While there has been some confusion about the taxonomy of this species, Rice (1998) suggests that the minke whale should be classified as two species. In the Northern Hemisphere; B.a. acutorostrata can be found in the Atlantic and B.a. scammoni in the Pacific. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Antarctic minke whale, B. bonaerensis, and a distinct population of unnamed "dwarf" minke whales are found.


Natural History

There is no agreed-upon population estimate for the Southern Hemisphere minke whale. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is still considering the status and structure of the different populations of this species. The North Atlantic population (excluding the Canadian east coast) has been estimated at 149,000 individuals, and the Northwest Pacific and Okhotsk Sea population estimated at approximately 25,000.




Description & Natural History

Status of the Species
Scientific name: Balaenoptera acutorostrata; Balaenoptera bonaerensis
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Family: Balaenopteridae
Genus: Balaenoptera
Species: acutorostrata; bonaerensis


Physical description
The minke (pronounced "min-key") whale is the smallest member of the family Balaenopteridae. While there has been some confusion about the taxonomy of this species, Rice (1998) suggests that the minke whale should be classified as two species. In the Northern Hemisphere; B.a. acutorostrata can be found in the Atlantic and B.a. scammoni in the Pacific. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Antarctic minke whale, B. bonaerensis, and a distinct population of unnamed "dwarf" minke whales are found.

With the exception of the dwarf minke (which inhabits the Southern Hemisphere but is more closely related, genetically, to its Northern Hemisphere relatives), minkes from the northern and southern hemispheres differ in several ways.

Antarctic minke whales are larger than their Northern Hemisphere counterparts, with females reaching a maximum length of 10.7 meters (35 feet) and males reaching 9.8 meters (32 feet). The maximum weight of adults is about ten tonnes (11 tons).

Northern Hemisphere minke whales reach a maximum length of 9.2 meters (30 feet). Calves in both hemispheres are born at approximately 2.4 - 2.8 meters (7.9 - 9.2 feet) in length and weigh 350 kilograms (770 pounds). The smaller dwarf minke whales reach eight meters (26 feet) in length and calves are born at about two meters (6.6 feet).

All minke whales have a slender, streamlined body with a dark v-shaped head when viewed from above. The snout is narrow and pointed. There is a single longitudinal ridge along the rostrum in front of the blowholes. There are two blowholes, as in all baleen whales, and a straight mouth line. Ventral grooves run from the bottom of the chin to the navel. Baleen plates are short and their color, which varies with geographic location, tends to be lighter at the front and darker toward the back.

The body is dark gray or black on the back and white below, with gray shading extending up each side under, and in front of, the dorsal fin. The dorsal fin is sickle-shaped and situated about two thirds of the way along the body toward the tail.

Minke whales from the Northern Hemisphere have a white band around each flipper, whereas Antarctic minke whales may not have any flipper bands or have bands of irregular color and position. The flippers of dwarf minkes are white at the base and dark at the tip, with a white shoulder patch where the flipper joins the body and dark patches extending in front of the flippers and onto the throat.
Natural History
Minke whales inhabit oceans worldwide but are more common in cooler waters. They can be found offshore but are often seen in coastal and inshore areas entering bays and inlets. They do not "fluke up" (lift their tail fins into the air) when they dive, although they often arch the tail stock high above the water before a long dive.

Although they do not bow ride, they may approach or follow beside boats and will perform acrobatic displays such as spyhopping or breaching.

Minke whales are found in some areas throughout the year but only seasonally in others. It is thought that some populations migrate each year from polar feeding grounds to warmer breeding grounds. In the summer, North Atlantic minkes are found at high latitudes in Ungava Bay, Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, Jan Mayen, Svalbard and the Barents Sea.

Wintering grounds are poorly documented but sightings have occurred off the coast of Virginia, south to Dominica in the western North Atlantic, and from the North Sea to the Strait of Gibraltar in the eastern North Atlantic.

North Pacific minke whales summer in waters from the southern Chukchi Sea south to the East China Sea, into the central Pacific and the coast of Baja California. Their winter distribution is also poorly known but extends from the East China Sea and central California almost to the equator.

Antarctic minke whales summer in the Antarctic zone, especially close to the edge of the pack ice, and winter in the north, from the equator to the 35th parallel. They have also been sighted in the Ross Sea in winter.

The "dwarf" minke whale tends to be distributed in the lower latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere with wintering grounds from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and the eastern coast of South America from March to December. Scattered records exist from the sub-Antarctic during December to March and the dwarf form has been observed south of 60 degrees south.

Minke whales tend to be solitary or found in small groups, although they may also be found in larger aggregations in areas where prey is concentrated. Minkes feed primarily on krill and small schooling fishes.

There is no agreed-upon population estimate for the Southern Hemisphere minke whale. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is still considering the status and structure of the different populations of this species. The North Atlantic population (excluding the Canadian east coast) has been estimated at 149,000 individuals, and the Northwest Pacific and Okhotsk Sea population estimated at approximately 25,000.


Status
B. acutorostrata is listed as Lower Risk: Near Threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). B. bonaerensis is listed as Lower Risk: Conservation Dependent by IUCN and also listed on Appendix I of CITES.
Threats to the Species
The minke whale is the smallest of the large whales and was therefore uneconomical to harvest commercially until the 1920s, by which time all larger whales had been severely depleted. Despite the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, minke whales have become the principal target for whaling by Norway and Japan over the past 20 years.

Since 1993, Norway has been commercial whaling in the Northeast Atlantic under objection to the IWC moratorium. Between 1993 and 2000, Norway landed 3,172 minke whales. Japan has also been whaling under the banner of "scientific whaling."

Between 1990 and 1999, Japan landed a total of 3,751 minke whales from the Antarctic, including some dwarf minke whales.

Between 1994 and 2000, Japan also landed 538 minkes from the North Pacific where the genetically distinct offshore "O" stock and the inshore Sea of Japan/East Sea "J" stock are found. Because the two stocks are visually indistinguishable, individuals from the depleted "J" stock may be taken by Japan, and some are taken as fisheries bycatch by South Korea.

The Scientific Committee of the IWC concluded in 1999 that the genetically distinct "J" stock is "likely to further decline markedly" because of the high level of incidental catches. Meat from the hunt and from fisheries bycatch is sold commercially in both Japan and Korea.

Minke whales may also be threatened by entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, ocean pollution (marine debris, chemical contamination, oil spills and noise) and habitat degradation by coastal development.

International Trade
Listed on CITES Appendix I which prohibits international trade.



http://www.ifaw.org/



Z- a dude who wishes he could save animals…