not human people, but as occupying a similar range on the spectrum as the great apes (...) chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos possess self-awareness, feelings and high-level cognitive powers. according to a steadily gathering body of research, so do whales and dolphins.
in fact, their capacities could be even more ancient than our own, dating to an evolutionary explosion in brain size that took place millions of years before the last common ancestor of the great apes existed."if an alien came down anytime prior to about 1.5 million years ago to communicate with the 'brainiest' animals on earth, they would have tripped over our own ancestors and headed straight for the oceans to converse with the dolphins," said lori marino, an evolutionary neurobiologist at the yerkes national primate research center.
(...)
[the scientists] talk of whales and dolphins in terms of cultures and societies, and say cetaceans possess qualities of personhood.
[sperm whales] are responsible for much of what's known about the whales' social behavior, which involves wide variations in group formation, hunting and child-rearing. groups even appear to communicate in their own unique dialect.
"based on what we know, i'd guess that cetacean culture is intermediate between humans and chimpanzees. not in material culture, but in most other respects," said whitehead.
mesmo com todos esses argumentos, japão, noruega e islândia não aderiram ao cessar-caça às baleias proposto na reunião anual da international whaling commission, que rolou esta semana em portugal.
baleias ainda correm bastante risco. cerca de 40 mil delas foram mortas de 85 (!!!) e mil ainda são caçadas anualmente. o japão nem se importa se a fêmea está grávida. a caça, no entanto, há muito deixou de ser a única ameaça:
industrial pollution has suffused their bodies with heavy metals and toxins. noise pollution drowns out the vocalizations on which whales rely to find food and navigate. overfishing punches holes in oceanic webs of life. whales and dolphins are also accidentally caught in nets and struck by ships.
o governo obama está tentando dar o exemplo: estabeleceu limites de velocidade aos navios de sua costa nordestina, embora a comunidade internacional não tenha adotado a medida; e tentou restringir testes com sonares, que atrapalha a comunicação e a capacidade de localização dos animais (sem sucesso).
via wired.

