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MARINE PROTECTED AREAS FOR WHALES, DOLPHINS AND PORPOISES: A WORLD HANDBOOK FOR CETACEAN HABITAT CONSERVATION. Editor: Erich Hoyt. Earthscan, London and Sterling, VA, USA. 2005. ISBN 1-84407-064-6, PBK: 39.95 USD; 1-84407-063-8, HBK: 135.00 USD, 492 pp.
Cetaceans, perhaps more than any other group of organisms, are inextricably linked to conservation biology and environmental science. (It's a safe bet that "Save the Whales" bumper stickers outnumbered "Save the Whooping Cranes" over the years.) As such, the evolution of cetacean conservation efforts reflects overall trends in marine environmentalism. One trend is the growing relative importance of marine conservation (vs. terrestrial conservation) over the past few decades. Conservation efforts on land have a longer history (e.g., the first U.S. national park, Yellowstone, was initially protected in 1872) compared to marine conservation efforts (e.g., the first U.S. national marine sanctuary, Monitor N.M.S., was created in 1975). A second trend is the shift from taxonoriented protectionism (e.g., the U.S. Endangered Species Act [1972] and the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act [1972]) to more ecosystem-oriented approaches to conservation (i.e., ecosystem-based management or EBM). In the acronym soup that is part of conservation lingo, "MPA" (i.e., marine protected area) seems to be a relative latecomer to the lexicon of many biologists (compared to such classics as CITES, UNEP, and ESA). The vast majority of MPAs simply did not exist 30 years ago (the first MPA focusing on cetaceans was created in Mexico in 1972 for the protection of gray whales). A book on MPAs for cetaceans could not have been written 30 years ago (or perhaps even 10 or 20 years ago).
Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises is an especially timely book. The creation of MPAs is hot right now. The author, Erich Hoyt, relates that in the time it took to produce this book, the number of cetacean-relevant MPAs more than quadrupled. While reading about the hundreds of existing MPAs summarized in the book and appreciating the dynamic nature of marine conservation, I was...