For many years, people have been hunting and killing whales, using these whales for many types of commercialization. However, whales have been killed so often that many whale species have come close to extinction over the past few decades. By the late 1930s, around 350,000 whales were being killed annually, so in 1986, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling because of the extreme depletion of whale numbers. Since then, whale numbers have grown and the number of whales being killed annually decreased to around 100,000. However, some countries continue to kill thousands of whales every year and are pushing to start full-scale commercial whaling again, with 7500 whales being killed per year, 20 whales killed per day. I strongly believe that whaling should either be banned, or at the very least, only be allowed for …show more content…
Whaling causes many species to become endangered and marine life unbalanced. Blue whales can consume as much as 40 million krill per day, keeping the krill population balanced. Whale feces, the excretion of whales, also play a significant role in ocean ecology, releasing large fecal plumes which are extremely nutrient-rich and widely consumed by plankton. Sperm whale poop alone can remove up to 400,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere per year by promoting plankton growth. Today, the clustering of marine mammals still plays a significant role in maintaining their productivity in the regions they are frequent in. The enrichment is not only in primary productivity but also secondary productivity in the form of abundance or numbers in fish populations. Before whale population declines due to industrial whaling, it is estimated that baleen whales used to remove millions of tons more carbon than they do today. Scientists suggest that restoring whale populations could increase ocean carbon storage again, and may be as effective as reforestation