339 



its new-bom young are larger than a full-grown elephant and are re- 

 puted to consume more than one-half ton of milk daily. 



At the beginning of this century, the blue whale population was 

 over 100,000. Today, only a few hundred bine whales, perhaps as 

 many as 3,000 according to some estimates, ix)pulate our entire planet. 

 As Lewis Regenstein has written, in a recent article entitled "The 

 Vanishing Whales: Long Odds Against Survival," which appeared 

 in the August 22 edition of the Washington Post : 



There is serious doubt that enough males and females will be able to find 

 each other over the great expanse of the ocean to enable the species to breed and 

 perpetuate itself. 



James Fisher, Noel Simon and Jack Vincent have starkly identified 

 the cause of the blue whale's demise in "Wildlife in Danger," at 

 page 60 : 



The demise of the dinosaurs remains veiled in mystery and surmise, but there 

 is no need to speculate on the reasons for the disappearance of the blue whale ; 

 the rapaciousness of man is wholly responsible. Seas and oceans comprise 70 

 per cent of the earth's? surface, and one would have thought this ample habitat 

 allowed more than enough space for the whale's survival, but pursuit of the 

 whale has been so persistent that nowhere on the face of the sea or in its uttermost 

 depths, however remote or vast or forbidding, is there any longer a true sanctuary 

 beyond the reach of man's nithless exploitation. 



It may well be too late for the blue whale. The Asiatic gray whale 

 population has apparently disappeared. The largest known colony of 

 nominally protected southern right whales was wiped out in 1962. 

 Threatened with imminent extinction are the humpback, the sai, the 

 finback, the bowhead, the si^erm, the gray, and the right whales. 

 The frightening pace at which extinction is coming upon these species 

 is indicated just by examining the figures for the estimated average 

 population size of the fin whale, published by the International Whal- 

 ing Commission : 



1955-6 110,000 



1956-7 101,700 



1957-8 89,000 



1958-9 88,600 



1959-60 65, 700 



This need not be. Whales do not threaten man. There is no need of 

 self-defense to kill them. They do not endanger our crops, crowd our 

 territory. The commercial products which are derived from them are 

 not unique : Wliale meat, used for dog and cat food and on mink farms, 

 can easily be replaced by other meats ; whale oil can easily be replaced 

 by other products. 



In simple terms, then, we are embarked on destruction — pure and 

 simple. This is why the Ocean Mammal Protection Act of 1971 must 

 be enacted into law. 



Another creature which would be protected by this legislation is the 

 polar bear. The male polar bear averages about 900 pounds, although 

 specimens twice as heavy have been recorded. It stands about 5 feet 

 at the shoulders and is 7 to 8 feet or more long. The polar bear is found 

 in the Arctic, distributed around the Pole. For much of the year, it 

 lives on the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean. A magnificent animal — and 

 again an animal which in no way threatens man — the polar bear, like 

 the whales, is endangered. The largest and most flourishing white bear 

 population is found in the Canadian Arctic where only 6,000 or 7,000 



1960-1 59,700 



1961-2 45,300 



1962-3 40,000 



1963-4 32,400 



