497 



protectionist turn his back on studies of the conditions under which 

 the animals live and have to seek their fortune ? The propellor wounds 

 we were shown on the back of the manatee in Dr. Hartman's slide 

 must have been very painful, and he stated that the chief source of 

 manatee mortality is speedino: motorboats. The manatee already has 

 total protection by State law, and certainly Federal law should give it 

 total protection, too. But it needs more than that. The studies of 

 scientists like Dr. Hartman should be continued and fostered under 

 the act which the subcommittee approves. We should continue to learn 

 about the condition of the mammals of the sea, and the great bulk of 

 those studies should be performed without killing the animals. 



Here is the place where the traditional mana-gement teclmiques 

 need modification in dealing with these most remarkable of mammals. 

 The survivors of a gruelling evolutionar\' process which enables air- 

 breathers to spend so much time in another element simply cannot 

 be treated as units in a ledger of profit and loss, as targets for the 

 marksman, as readily expendable exhibits, or subjects of lethal 

 experiments. 



Management practices which are known to be detrimental to the 

 animals, such as the flipper-tagging of seals which has proven to con- 

 tribute to a high mortality of the tagged animals, should not be con- 

 tinued. Humane substitutive methods of marking should be used if 

 available, developed if not available. 



Where studies of dead animals are needed, and they are essential 

 in assessing the effects of pollution, the use of recovered carcasses as 

 described by Judson Vandevere of Hopkins Marine Station of Stan- 

 ford I'niversity should be encouraged. 



Observation' of living sea mammals may be difficult, but it is not 

 impossible, and it has never led to the disastrous mistakes made by the 

 whaling scientists whose data collection was from dead animals only. 

 Professor Small documents on pages 27-32 of "The Blue TVhale" 

 the total confusion surrounding the ''knowledge"* of the whales* ages. 



The specific knowledge of age at sexual maturity was attained when its 

 commercial life was 95.2 i^ercent over. In other words by that time the Japanese 

 scientists confirmed Ruud's findings. 95.2% of all the blue whales taken in the 

 history of the antarctic whaling had already been killed. 



What brought about the discovery that blue whales cannot breed at 

 age 2. as prestigious whaling scientists had caused everyone to be- 

 lieve? "An Enforced Moratorium Caused by the Second World War." 



When whaling was resumed in 1945 it was quite evident that the stock of 

 blue whales had not increased significantly. There were fewer very young 

 blue whales but evidently those born early in the war had made no contribu- 

 tion to the population. Sexual maturity at age 2 was obviously wrong. 



This monumental error of whaling scientists undoubtedly contrib- 

 uted to the pathetic status of the blue whale (estimated at 600 to 3,000 

 individual animals) today. 



Tliese hearings have demonstrated that what we don*t know about 

 ocean mammals is so vastly greater than what we do know, that the 

 potential value of the different si^ecies may well be enomious, not in 

 terms of fur or meat or oil. but in tenns of each one*s special adapta- 

 tions, particular form of intelligence, i^eculiar abilities in dealing with 

 life in an element where man is at a great disad^'antage. 



