What are three reasons that cetaceans are at risk of extinction?
There are many reasons that cetaceans are at risk. The smaller cetaceans often are bycatch in tuna nets; that is, they are caught in large numbers and drown accidentally in tuna and other nets because tuna and small cetaceans eat the same fishes and often occur together. The populations of larger cetaceans, such as the baleen whales, have plummeted in the past several hundred years do to whale hunting or whaling. Although these marine mammals are now internationally protected, they are illegally hunted for their meat. [Small-scale “traditional” hunting by native groups is allowed by the international treaty protecting marine mammals.] Underlying the problems created by bycatch and whaling is the very low reproductive rate of cetaceans. Cetaceans typically have long gestation periods (up to a year of pregnancy), long periods of parental care (several years or more), and only give birth to a single baby. Populations with low reproductive rates are at risk of extinction because they do no
