The Green Guide

Help Save the Whales!

Gareth Andrade is an 11-year-old student in Year 7 at The Winchester School who advocates for UN Sustainable Development Goal #14: Life Below Water. Since he was a little boy, he has been passionate about conserving sea animals, volunteering towards beach cleanups, being a conscious ecowarrior at home, at school and everywhere he goes. He and his brother launched the “Balloons Blow Don’t Let Them Go” campaign in Dubai, in November 2018, and since then he has collected thousands of pledges. They are the largest animals on Earth, yet they live off some of the smallest. There are around 40 different types of whales which include the largest creature to have lived on the planet the blue whale.

For hundreds of years, people hunted whales for their oil to fuel lamps and candles, to lubricate machinery, and to make margarine, lipsticks and other products. They also used baleen whales to make tennis racquets and corsets! Today, modern technology has replaced the need for whale products, so there is no need to kill whales for their oil. Sadly, some countries still kill whales to sell whale meat for profit – a very expensive luxury for some people.

Consequences from over-whaling include increased carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming and leads to melting of the polar ice caps and changes in the eating habits of many marine animals. Phytoplankton is also a main food source for many species and is important for fish to be healthy and thriving.

Now if a whale were to become extinct or critically endangered, every animal that is linked to it and every animal linked to that one, so on and so forth, will be affected. The balance of the food chain will be thrown out of balance and there will be either a surplus or lack of certain species due to this. The food system will fall upside down.

Recently I watched ‘Seaspiracy’ on Netflix – A journey of a film maker who brought to light how abandoned fishing nets dumped in the ocean and bycatch fishing is affecting the whale population and other marine species in the ocean.

The best solution to stop whaling is educating the population about the issue and raising awareness about whaling and its negative effects. Countries should tell the people how the ecosystem and environment are affected by whaling so more people would understand and know about the problem and take action.