Whaleopedia is a science-based resource about the natural history of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Presented by the co-authors of Smithsonian Book’s best-seller The World’s Whales: A Complete illustrated Guide, Whaleopedia also offers information about cetacean conservation and related ocean science news. A project of the non-profit ocean conservation organization Bluecology, you can make a difference by supporting the Whaleopedia project as we grow and develop new educational initiatives.
With almost 2,000,000 website visitors, we aim to make a difference.
INTRODUCTION
Awed by their size, intelligence, social nature, and on the precipice of understanding their way of life in a challenging habitat, we are fascinated by the cetaceans: whales, dolphins, and porpoises — air-breathing mammals with which we feel such an unlikely kinship.
The great rise in popularity of whale watching in Hawaii, California, New England, and elsewhere around the world, bears eloquent witness to our desire to see and know more about these fascinating animals. Several species of great whales have been depleted to the point of near-extinction — for oil, fertilizer, pet food, and cosmetics — before we have learned as much about them as we have about the rarest and most protected of land mammals. In more recent years, threats such as prey depletion, vessel traffic, pollution, entanglement in fishing nets, sonar testing, and climate change threaten their livelihood, in addition to continued whaling and direct dolphin and porpoise kills. At least one species of dolphin, the Baiji, will probably soon go extinct from our shortsightedness, and there are doubtless other species, most likely the ziphiids, or beaked whales, that have yet to be discovered.
If we are to preserve the whales, dolphins, and porpoises — then we must learn more about their astonishing abilities — and weaknesses. It is to that greater knowledge and the hope for their survival that this website is dedicated.
