Marin Mammal Protection Act turns 50!
In 1972 you could buy Sperm Whale Oil at the hardware store to hone your knives, and dogfood made of whale meat. Dolphins were regularly rounded up and slaughtered in tuna nets, and commercial firms were capturing orcas and selling them to places like Marine Land and Sea World.
And after 200 years of commercial whaling, many whale species were heading toward extinction. But ironically, as people started meeting orcas and dolphins in the aquatic parks, they started falling in love with them. And when Roger Payne released “The Songs of the Humpback Whale,” their soulful songs began haunting people’s conscience.
It was clear that “killer whales” were actually “loving whales.” Dolphins, humpbacks, and other marine mammals were not mindless brutes, but cultured species with complex relationships with others.
Public sympathy for marine mammals rose to a level that drove the introduction of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in the House of Representatives in December, 1971; wending its way through committees, House, and Senate to be signed into law by president Nixon in October 1972.
It has been amended since then to include “Incidental Take” and Incidental Harassment” authorizations, largely orbiting around marine mammal interactions with commercial fisheries and US Naval operations, where activities could not occur without damaging or killing some marine mammals – either by entanglement or exposure to explosives and noise.
But the larger consequences of the MMPA was the cessation of commercial whaling, and reckless disregard for marine mammal habitats and their natural history. This has resulted in the recovery of many species – grey whales, which had been depleted to ~2500 individual, have now repopulated to 20,000 – 30,000 animals, and sealion populations have recovered to a level where they are becoming somewhat of a nuisance in urban areas.
OCR is working with a coalition of our conservation colleagues (NRDC, Animal Welfare Institute, Oceana, Defenders of Wildlife among the groups) highlighting the 50th anniversary of this monumental act. We are just in the starting stages, so all of the “Social Networking” assets are still in construction.
What we do have is the launch video produced by Daniela Huson, OCR’s Director of Communications, with graphics and text input from AWI’s Naomi Rose and her staff. I got to pull a legacy rabbit out of my hat, composing the score (something I studied in school ‘back when’).
Stay tuned, because we will be building on this #MMPA50 campaign over the next few months up to October – the month that the Act was signed into law.
We’ll be offering up amendments to bring the Act into alignment with current science, and we’ll be asking you, the public to amplify the celebration – knowing that the Act – and our amendments, would not be possible without broad public support.
