Whales, whaling, and ocean ecosystems

James A. Estes, Douglas P. DeMaster, Daniel F. Doak, Terrie M. Williams, Robert L. Brownell Jr.0-520-24884-8, 978-0-520-24884-7

This unprecedented volume presents a sweeping picture of what we know about the natural history, biology, and ecology of whales in the broad context of the dynamics of ocean ecosystems. Innovative and comprehensive, the volume encompasses multiple points of view to consider the total ecological impact of industrial whaling on the world’s oceans. Combining empirical research, ecological theory and modeling, and historical data, its chapters present perspectives from ecology, population biology, physiology, genetics, evolutionary history, ocean biogeography, economics, culture, and law, among other disiplines. Throughout, contributors investigate how whaling fundamentally disrupted ocean ecosystems, examine the various roles whales play in food webs, and discuss the continuing ecological chain reactions to the depletion of these large animals. In addition to reviewing what is known of the current and historic whale populations, Whales, Whaling, and Ocean Ecosystems considers how this knowledge will bear on scientific approaches to conservation and whaling in the future and provocatively asks whether it is possible to restore ocean ecosystems to their pre-whaling condition.

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Table of contents :
0520248848……Page 1
CONTENTS……Page 6
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS……Page 8
LIST OF TABLES……Page 10
LIST OF FIGURES……Page 12
1. Introduction……Page 18
Background……Page 22
2. Whales, Interaction Webs, and Zero-Sum Ecology……Page 24
3. Lessons from Land……Page 31
4. When Ecological Pyramids Were Upside Down
……Page 44
5. Pelagic Ecosystem Response to a Century of Commercial Fishing and Whaling……Page 55
6. Evidence for Bottom-Up Control of Upper-Trophic-Level Marine Populations……Page 67
Whales and Whaling……Page 82
7. Evolutionary Patterns in Cetaceous Fishing Up Prey Size through Deep Time……Page 84
8. A Taxonomy of World Whaling Operations and Eras……Page 99
9. The History of Whales Read from DNA
……Page 119
10. Changes in Marine Mammal Biomass in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Region before and after the Period of Commercial Whaling……Page 133
11. Industrial Whaling in the North Pacific Ocean 1952-1979……Page 151
12. Worldwide Distribution and Abundance of Killer Whales……Page 162
13. The Natural History and Ecology of Killer Whales……Page 180
14. Killer Whales as Predators of Large Baleen Whales and Sperm Whales……Page 191
Process and Theory……Page 206
15. Physiological and Ecological Consequences of Extreme Body Size in Whales
……Page 208
16. Ecosystem Impact of the Decline of Large Whales in the NOrt Pacific……Page 219
17. The Removal of Large Whales from the Southern Ocean……Page 232
18. Great Whales as Prey……Page 248
19. Whales and Whaling in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea……Page 262
20. Legacy of Industrial Whaling……Page 279
21. Predator Diet Breadth and Prey Population Dynamics……Page 296
22. Bigger is Better……Page 303
Case Studies……Page 318
23. Gray Whales in the Bering and Chukchi Seas……Page 320
24. Whales, Whaling, and Ecosystems……Page 331
25. Sperm Whales in Ocean Ecosystems……Page 341
26. Ecosystem Effects of Fishing and Whaling in the North Pacific and Atlantic Oceans……Page 352
27. Potential Influences of Whaling on the Status and Trends of Pinniped Populations
……Page 361
28. The Dynamic Between Social Systems and Ocean Ecosystems……Page 380
29. Whaling, Law, and Culture……Page 390
Overview and Synthesis……Page 394
30. Whales Are Big and It Matters……Page 396
31. Retrospection and Review
……Page 405
INDEX
……Page 412