In early December, the International Whaling Commission celebrated its 75th anniversary and working with several other conservation and welfare organisations, OceanCare hosted an on-line event to mark this occasion and launch a vision for the IWC in the years to come. I was asked to describe the threats to whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans) in the modern world in a ten-minute slot. This was quite a challenge as there are more than ninety species of cetaceans, which divide up into many discrete populations and all these populations face their own challenges. So, I pondered how to do this for some time and then a photograph came my way that was so terrible and so arresting but also spoke so eloquently to the situation of modern whales in our busy seas, that I thought I could make it the focus of this short overview. I was also blessed with some other beautiful images of wild orcas to show that had recently been taken by a friend off North Norway and so worked these into the presentation too.
The 12 minute (!) talk is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BoVgfBLTfY&t=56s
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