| This book is dedicated to those who work on behalf of cetaceans and marine ecosystems, and to those who cannot speak, write and argue for their place in the sea: the whales, dolphins and porpoises and other marine species
‘There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune… The flood is occurring regarding the high seas’
Graeme Kelleher (paraphrasing William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar) saying that now is the time to create and fight for high-seas marine protected areas
The publication of this handbook, Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, will, it is hoped, mark the beginning of a new era in the worldwide research and protection of whales, dolphins and porpoises – the cetaceans. This work, sponsored by WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, represents the first detailed investigation into the status, process and potential of instituting cetacean habitat protection.
This book is being completed as new findings about marine biodiversity quicken the pace of human interest in and development of the sea. At present, only 15 per cent of the estimated 1,650,000 (+150,000) catalogued species of plants and animals are marine. Yet recent research into deep-sea ecosystems reveals that an estimated 500,000 to 10 million, or even considerably more, marine species may exist, waiting to be named, studied and utilized (Gray, 1997; Wilson, 2002). Yet how little we know about these amazing marine ecosystems which are capable of producing such biodiversity.
About the Author
Erich Hoyt is Senior Research Associate of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and Co-director of the Far East Russia Orca Project. He is author of 13 books, eight of them on whales and dolphins. |
