Marine protected areas for whales, dolphins, and porpoises: a world ...

Introduction 13
and Birkun, 2002; Reeves, 2001), I agree that even large, well-designed and
managed MPA networks will not be enough by themselves.
From within MPAs as well as outside them:
• We need to cut down on the amount of pollution flowing off the land and
into rivers and seas.
• We need to ensure that human activities in the sea (fishing, shipping, largescale
whale watching and other marine tourism) do not make it difficult or
impossible for cetaceans to live and thrive. We need good marine protection
laws and good enforcement of these laws – in national as well as
international waters.
• And with all these things, since we are still learning about the best
management to maintain or improve an area, we need to invoke the
precautionary approach often. We need to recognize that marine protection,
as well as management, is an evolving, iterative process in which we learn
by doing and then evaluating the results. It is particularly important that the
management structures and limitations put in place at the creation of a new
MPA do not restrict or hinder the evolution to better management.
The 21st century will almost certainly see unprecedented use of the world
ocean for international shipping; fishing and mariculture; oil, gas and mineral
development, as well as, unfortunately, its traditional use as a world dumping
ground, primarily wastes from land. Much of this is fuelled by a growing world
population – currently considered most likely to peak at around 9 billion in
2070 – 50 per cent more people than the 6 billion alive today (Lutz et al, 2001;
Wilson, 2002). Another factor is human technological prowess that will enable
exploration and development in the deep high seas. Our task, those of us who
care about cetaceans, is to make a place for cetaceans in the sea – to ensure that
what is rightfully theirs and has been for millennia – is well protected.
The main thing to say about MPAs is that we must start somewhere. MPAs,
such as they are, provide one starting point for protecting cetacean habitat. It
remains for us now to take up the challenge and build on this, to take these
areas that appeal to tourism marketing boards as well as to ministries of the
environment wanting to be seen to be doing something, and to extend them as
needed, to help shape the policies and to participate actively in the management.
Over time, it is only by taking up the challenge of each area, to fulfil the
dreamed-of mandate, that we can hope to turn these into powerful, enduring
marine conservation tools – not end points, but living, working tools – for local
communities, for the world at large, for whales and dolphins.