100 



banning the import of their products into this country. This action, 

 unfortunately, came too late to have much of an effect. 

 In praising this gesture, the New York Times pointed out : 



The magnificent Blue whale may already have passed the i)oint of no return 

 and he headed irreversibly towards extinction. The rare Grey, Humpback, and 

 Bowhead whales are also gravely threatened — and all in the interest of such 

 vital products as cat food. 



If whales had been placed on the Interior Department's endangered 

 list a few years earlier, it is probable that whales would not be in the 

 tragic situation they are in today. 



Such a step would have been consistent with the Endangered Species 

 Conservation Act of 1969, the intent of which is to prevent such con- 

 ditions before they occur. 



It should be emphasized that at the present time, only eight species of 

 whales are banned from import into the United States. The remaining 

 80-some varieties may continue to be hunted, killed, and imported, 

 presumably until they, too, reach the brink of extinction. 



The whaling industry is already anticipating the day when there 

 will be no more large whales left to "harvest." They will be replaced 

 by dolphins and porpoises — among the most friendly and intelligent 

 species of whales — which are already being killed in extraordinary 

 numbers. 



Last year, the Japanese are estimated to have "taken" some 200,000 

 dolphins and porpoises, with perhaps an equal or greater number being 

 caught in nets and inadvertently killed by Japanese and American 

 fishermen. 



According to Prof. Kenneth Norris, director of the Oceanic Insti- 

 tute at the Makapuu Ocean Center in Hawaii, these creatures will soon 

 face the same danger of extinction as the larger whales, since they can 

 be used as a substitute for traditional types of whale meat in dog and 

 cat food. 



Our current attitude toward dolphins contrasts sharply with man's 

 cooperative relationship with them in the past. Pliny the Elder has 

 described how the ancient Greeks used dolphins to lead them to schools 

 of fish and then shared their catch with these friendly cetaceans. Ac- 

 cording to Pliny, the dolphins even waited in the area until the follow- 

 ing day to be rewarded for their efforts with bread dipped in wine.. 



The practice of modern tuna fleets is similar, except that the dol- 

 phins are picked up by the nets, along with the fish, and killed. 



The real tragedy of this situation is that whales are being killed 

 quite unnecessarily. 



As Senator Fred Harris pointed out when he introduced our bill 

 to protect whales and other ocean mammals : 



For the sake of money — primarily the American dollar — these animals are 

 subjected to massive brutality and slaughter. There is no product from any 

 of these creatures which is essential for human survival or welfare. Each has 

 a readily available substitute. 



The informational organization which has the responsibility for 

 regulating whaling and setting quotas which will not deplete the 

 species is the International Whaling Commission, IWC. This body, 

 however, has been so dominated by the commercial interest groups that 

 it has allowed whales to be slaughtered far beyond any reasonable 

 limit. The IWC has often been charged w4th greed and shortsighted- 



