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L'Antàrtida, molt més que gel À. Aguilar. Els cetacis de l’Antàrtida. The abundance of large whales in Antarctic waters is associated to the high summer productivity that makes stocks of krill (small crustaceans, particularly euphausiacea, that form shoals in superficial waters) abundant and predictable. Whales migrate seasonally from the temperate waters where they reproduce during the winter to occupy the southernmost waters during the summer to exploit krill. The abundance of whales in southern waters did not escape to whalers, and at the beginning of the XX century a network of land and floating factories extended through the entire region. Fishing was conducted ruthless and on an extremely aggressive pattern, and whale populations were rapidly over-exploited one after the other. The blue whale was the first to be depleted, but the other species soon followed until that of smaller size, the minke whale, took its turn. As a consequence of these repetitive cycles of exploitation and subsequent exhaustion of the resource, and the apparent inability of management bodies to regulate the devastation, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) approved a moratorium on commercial whaling, which became effective in 1985. However, Japan and other whaling nations continued whaling until present, although the current catch is small and unlikely to represent a risk to the exploited populations. |
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