Editorial: People – Marine Mammal Interactions

Our relationships with marine mammals are complex. We have used them as resources, and in some places this remains the case; viewed them as competitors and culled them (again ongoing in some localities); been so captivated and intrigued that we have taken them into captivity for our entertainment; and developed a lucrative eco-tourism activity focused on them in many nations (Brakes and Simmonds, 2011). In fact, the history and even the economic success of manymaritime nations has been intimately intertwined with exploitation of marine mammals. In the United Kingdom, for example, stranded cetaceans were once used opportunistically for food, and this later developed into organized hunting, with the value of cetaceans recognized in 1,324 when a statute was enacted giving the English sovereign qualified rights to stranded and captured animals (Simmonds, 2011). The Scottish crown quickly moved to claim the same rights. Later, British interests moved from a focus on whale meat to whale oil and land stations and far-seas whaling followed. Ultimately, it was whale oil that helped to light the streets and factories of the industrial revolution and lubricate its machines. Britain was, of course, far from being alone in mining the whales for their oil and, come the twentieth century, as whale stocks dwindled, the UK was one of the founding member nations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). When we first envisaged this special topic, we had two overarching aims. Firstly, we hoped to generate critical evaluation of some of our relationships with these animals and, secondly, we hoped to attract knowledgeable commentators and experts who might not traditionally publish in the peer-reviewed literature. We were also asking ourselves a question about what responsibility humankind might have to marine mammals, on our rapidly changing planet. Readers will judge our success for themselves, from the papers in this special issue, which cover;