Marine Mammals

doi:10.1017/9781108186148.047

Chapter 37 - Marine Mammals

from I - Marine Species

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2017

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Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs

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Summary

Introduction

Marine mammals occupy a wide range of marine and some freshwater habitats around the world. They have been used by humans for millennia for food and to obtain other products. Marine mammals consist of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses), sirenians (dugongs and manatees), mustelids (sea otters and marine otters) and the polar bear – 130 or more species in total, including several that range into fresh water and some that exclusively occupy rivers and lakes. Human interactions, both direct and indirect, have negatively affected most marine mammal species at least to some degree. Historically, industrial harvesting greatly reduced the abundance of many populations. Although the intensity of such exploitation has declined in recent decades for many species, humans continue to use certain species of marine mammals in some places for food, skins, fur, ivory and increasingly as bait for fisheries. In addition, human activities continue to reduce the availability and quality of marine mammal habitats and cause substantial numbers of marine mammals to die incidentally as a result of entanglement or entrapment in fishing gear and from being struck by vessels. Mitigation of ongoing and future threats to marine mammals from human activities requires improved knowledge of those human activities and of the animals’ ecology, behaviour and habitat use.

Changes in Biological Diversity

Globally, certain species of marine mammals have become extinct over the last several centuries, i.e., Steller's sea cow, the Japanese sea lion, the Caribbean monk seal. The Yangtze River dolphin (baiji) is also likely to have become extinct although there has been one unconfirmed sighting in 2005. In addition, many populations have been reduced to remnant status, such that they no longer play a significant role in the ecosystem, i.e., they are functionally extinct. For example, right whales have essentially disappeared from the eastern North Atlantic, and walruses are gone from their former strongholds in south-eastern Canada (Gulf of St. Lawrence and Sable Island). The loss of marine mammal diversity due to actual and functional extinctions has had significant effects on marine ecosystems at varying scales from local to ocean-basin-wide (Estes et al., 2006).

Magnitude of changes

Besides the above-mentioned extinctions and extirpations, the numerical abundance (and biomass) of many other marine mammal populations has been greatly reduced.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: The First Global Integrated Marine Assessment
World Ocean Assessment I
, pp. 753 - 762

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108186148.047 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2017

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