Conservation and Threats to whalesConservation and threats to whales has become a major topic around the world. With growing human population, the threats which cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) face increased, too. Many species and populations are endangered today. fishery has massively extended during the last decades resulting in high rates of cetacean bycatch each year. Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing industries at the moment and changes coastal ecosystems all around the globe. Depredation of whales on fishery catch also increased since cetaceans learn fast to link the vessels to easy food. Depredation causes problems to both sides: fishermen and whales. Since stocks of almost all commercially caught fishes are dramatically depleted food competition between humans and cetaceans became an issue. Much research has been conducted during the last decades to find solutions for all these problems but there are still more questions than answers. People still know little about the dimension of ecosystem change caused by overfishing, massively increased noise levels in the ocean, habitat destruction and pollution by chemicals. Marine protected areas (MPA's) and whale sanctuaries have been established but effects to the Conservation and threats to whales were very different depending on the quality of their management. So cetaceans hardly have the possibility to recover from over hunting since new threats have developed and even whaling is still an issue with unexpected dimensions. Many countries have never stopped killing dolphins, and whales are taken by some nations as well with an increasing trend. Many cetaceans exhibit scars from ship collisions since boat traffic increased by several magnitudes in only few decades. Fishery interations ( effects on whales through fishery )
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