This act established a moratorium, with certain exceptions, in US waters or by US citizens on the high seas on the harassing, hunting, capturing or killing of any marine mammal or the attempt to do so. The conservation, management and enforcement components of the part of the Act covering dolphins and whales are handled by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Dolphins and their Relatives Dolphins, porpoises and whales belong to the order Cetacean. Cetaceans, like all mammals, bear their young live, nurse their young with milk and breathe air through lungs. Unlike many other mammals, they live entirely in water, have almost no hair, and have a layer of fat called blubber which serves to keep them warm and store food.
Cetaceans are mammals, who through evolution returned back to the water from land.
Their front limbs turned into flippers for water travel in a similar way the bats front limbs became wings for air travel. The Cetaceans have no hind limbs. Porpoises look similar to dolphins but unlike the dolphins they are smaller, have a gently sloping forehead, a rounded snout and spade shaped teeth. Porpoises generally roam the cooler coastal waters of the Pacific and Atlantic, however they can be found in the deep waters of the Gulf. For example, of the species found in the Gulf, the false killer whale and pygmy killer whale are members of the dolphin family.