Why Kill the Dolphins? :: Marine Life Whaling Fishing Conservation Essays

Why Kill the Dolphins?Dolphins make up the largest and more or less versatile family of cetaceans. The family throws 26 recognized species of which 13 tend to have recollective well defined beaks and streamlined robust bodies. Many vary in size, shape, colors, beaks and flippers, as humans have various characteristics. One of the most ordinary mahimahis that ar found in southern California is the bottlenose whale dolphin (Kelly). The bottlenose dolphin is mainly found in coastal amniotic fluid between 45 degrees north and 45 degrees south, also in northerly Europe waters. It is believed that there ar two types of bottlenose dolphin regional wise oceanic form and coastal form. This species is studied the most by biologists (Jefferson). The coastal population lives in fairly open groups with twenty or less in a pod, some groups are found to contain more in open ocean. It is not uncommon for these species to interact and treat with other species, as would a human interact wit h other diverse humans. The dolphins feeding behavior is adapted to the availability of resources. They sometimes are know to work together to catch fish from large schools, they also dredge behind large fishing boats to catch what falls behind (Leatherwood). A large problem today is the incidental exploitation of the bottlenose dolphins in the Black sea. The dolphins suffer from entanglement in gillnets, shark nets, shrimp trawls, and round out seine nets in the eastern pacific tropical tuna fishery. In the past twenty years a large amount of bottlenose dolphin have been killed due to the tuna fishery. In the Eastern peace-loving swim large schools of tuna, these shoals tend to be chthonic herds of dolphins, for some unexplained reason. Because of this, fishermen can easily find schools of tuna. The tuna are being caught under purse seine nets, which encircles the shoals of tuna and then is pulled back on posting the fishing vessel, catching both tuna and dolphin. Initially th e mortality tempo was 500,000 each year for dolphins alone. Although some efforts are made to encourage the dolphins to get by the net by backing down part of the net, which allows the dolphins to escape, there are still a large number of mortalities (Bryant). On the other hand, in the last few years there has been dramatic progress in stopping the fishing industries from using purse sine nets. It has been found that dolphins are in immediate danger of extinction if these fishing techniques dont stop.