392 WHALES 



What is the actual risk of \vhales becoming extinct? To answer this 

 question, \ve must first be certain of the way we pose it. Needless to say, 

 whales and dolphins will have to disappear from the earth some time, 

 just like so many thousands of other animals which lived in pre-historic 

 times, and which, after they had lived on earth for some millions or some 

 tens of millions of years, disappeared with only fossils as their trace. All 

 species and genera, man included, will eventually disappear, and in the 

 case of Cetaceans we can even predict whether, geologically speaking, 

 their time is running out or not. 



If we compare the natural history of Cetaceans, past and present, with 

 that of other orders of animals, we get the clear impression that Mysticetes, 

 for one, passed the peak of their evolution many millions of years ago, and 

 that they are really very much on the decline. The strongest evidence for 

 this contention is their enormous size. In Chapter 2 we saw that, twenty- 

 five million years ago, Mysticetes were very much smaller, and we know 

 from the history of the entire animal kingdom that the emergence of giant 

 forms is a certain sign of the approaching end. Another factor which, in 

 geological time, endangers their existence is their highly specialized 

 structure and modus vivendi. To take but two examples of this specialization : 

 their exclusive diet of small shrimps (krill), and the highly specialized 

 whalebone apparatus which goes with this type of diet. If changes in the 

 climate or in the ocean currents should ever cause krill to disappear, 

 Mysticetes would have to die out, since there is no other suitable food in 

 adequate quantities and, even if there were, Mysticetes would be unable 

 to get hold of it. 



Another factor militating against their long-term survival is a rather 

 paradoxical one: Cetaceans live under optimum biological conditions. 

 They have few enemies, are not too adversely affected by parasites, and 

 have as much food as they need. In this way, weak and deformed animals 

 have an excellent chance of survival, which is borne out by the great many 

 healed fractures and pathological bone processes which are found in 

 Cetacean carcasses (whose owners, needless to say, continued to live despite 

 their impairment). Under less favourable conditions, such weakened 

 specimens would be cjuickly destroyed, but, as it is, their weak or patho- 

 logical constitution may be transmitted to future generations, until the 

 whole species degenerates, and finally becomes extinct. Now, from that 

 point of view as well the writing for Cetaceans, as for a number of other 

 animals, is clearly on the wall, and they would become extinct in the near 

 (geologically speaking) future, even if man left them severely alone. In 

 fact, a number of more recent species have already become extinct, viz. 

 the Atlantic Grey Whale, and this before man had begun to hunt it. 



It might be argued, however, that, geologically speaking, whales have 



