BLUE WHALE

Seeing the blue whale truly is a humbling experience. Even if these are the slightly smaller pygmy blue whales (Balaenoptera

musculus brevicauda), their immense size still overwhelms you to your core. These awe-inspiring and most majestic of Earth’s beings once numbered in the hundreds of thousands and were found in all the oceans, but they have been on the endangered species list since the end of industrialised whaling in the 1970s. With only an estimated 15–25,000 around the world, the pervasiveness of “ghost” net entanglements, ship propeller strikes and plastic-filled oceans means that their recovery and future still hangs in the balance. Their impact on the environment is only now being realised and the significant role baleen whales play in the maintenance of the Earth’s biosphere is only now being felt, in part, as “climate change”. The whales’ cyclic feeding on krill and fertilising of phytoplankton is an essential cog in Earth’s climate balance forged over millennia and this balance has been destroyed in a few short decades of industrialised whaling. Thus, the need to end all whaling in this unfolding global climate catastrophe has never been more warranted.