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To recap my research, I have looked into porpoises to see how conservation efforts affect the survival of the species. My hypothesis is that the location of the porpoises’ habitat does not affect the amount of effort that is put into conservation. I have already looked through the Vaquita, the Spectacled Porpoise, and the Yangtze Finless Porpoise. The Yangzte Finless Porpoise is the piece of data that disproves my null hypothesis the most. The areas around the Yangtze River have made a large effort to keep the population of the porpoise from declining more because of the extinction of the Baiji in 2006. The Spectacled Porpoise brings up an interesting aspect to my research, due to the little amount that is known about the species.
The Dall's porpoise is a species that lives in the Northern region of the Pacific Ocean. It is declared a species of least concern by IUCN. Due to there not being a noticeable decline in the species populations and the species being declared of least concern, there are not any extreme efforts made for their conservation (figure 1). This porpoise brings up a block to my research because unlike the Spectacled Porpoise, there is more known about the species, but there are no efforts made towards the population. This is caused by there not being a necessity to protect the species. It helps to show that the number of efforts that people put into a certain species' population is based on the condition of the species and not the location.
Figure 1
Dall's Porpoise
With no real decline of this porpoises population, and an overall population of around 1.2 million, there have been no noticeable efforts made to protect the aquatic mammal. The largest known porpoise in the world at about 2.3 meters long that lives in the Northern Pacific Ocean.
By Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0
The Harbour Porpoise is an interesting species. In most of the habitats that they live in, they have been declared a species of least concern; but in the Baltic Sea, they are declared a species critically endangered (figure 2). Recently on the 25th of February, the European Union wrote in a law that protects the Harbour Porpoise from overfishing. They outlawed static fishing nets year-round in the hope of aiding the species' population. This gives another point to disprove my null hypothesis because of the extreme effort that is only made in a certain area that the porpoise's population is in a case of critically endangered. The rest of the population of the species outside of the Baltic Sea is in a condition that people do not have to worry about the population.
Figure 2
Harbour Porpoise
This porpoise measures in at an average porpoise size of about 1.85 meters long, there is a critically endangered population that lives in the Baltic Sea. The species also lives in the Northern Pacific Ocean and the Northern Atlantic Ocean.
By Erik Christensen - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
As I continue into the next month I will be comparing what I have found through the different species of porpoise to prove or disprove my null hypothesis that the location of the porpoises’ habitat does not affect the amount of effort that is put into conservation. As I am analyzing the data I have collected I will work on my final presentation and paper. My final presentation can be found below.
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