Humpback whales will be officially removed from the list of endangered animals in Australia. After a discovery that shocked the oceanography industry, the Australian government came to a big decision.
Whaling has brought the giant species to the brink of extinction. However, since the 1980s, whaling has decreased significantly, causing the number of whales to increase steadily year by year. Although no longer affected by hunting activities, whales are still at risk of extinction due to pollution and climate change.
The latest survey may reassure global animal conservationists. Australia’s Environment Minister Sussan Ley confirmed the number of individuals was stable enough to declare humpback whales no longer endangered.
The decision was made after the team of scientists evaluated “problems arising from climate changedifficulties come from “mollusk fishing activities” and many other factors affecting the number of individuals. Ms Ley said that in addition to removing the name of humpback whales from the endangered animal list, killing, injuring, catching, exchanging, captive or arbitrarily moving whales is an offense. France.
Oceanographer Vanessa Pirotta of Macquarie University said that removing the humpback whale’s name from the endangered list would help focus conservation efforts, and attract more conservation funding when efforts are already underway. give results.
However, Ms. Pirotta said that humpback whales are not really safe, when climate change can also cause unforeseen consequences. “There are still some threats to whales such as collisions with ships, entanglement in fishing nets, pollution, and of course, climate change.‘, said the expert.
“Climate change is a big factor because it affects the direction these animals move, their food distribution and, sadly, [biến đổi khí hậu] affect the habitat of Antarctic krill, which are the main food source of humpback whales“.
However, many conservation experts say the Australian government has rushed to make the decision. As the threat posed by climate change remains, it is still premature to remove humpback whales from the endangered marine animal list.
According to expert Nicola Beynon, head of animal conservation campaigns at Humane Society International, the Australian government has a right to rejoice that humpback whales are no longer in danger, as they lead efforts to protect the whales. giant thing. However, they could have considered it longer before completely removing the humpback whale from the endangered species list. In addition, she proposed updating the rating mechanism of the old list.
“The current way of law enforcement is quite confusing when it is so obvious in black and white, of course it is much more complicated than that.” she commented.