The fate of dolphins in the eastern tropical Pacific continues to be debated. Today, less than 1,000 dolphins are known to be killed in this manner each year, though the debate continues as certain bans and tuna labeling laws have recently been changed. The issue is complicated, and environmental organizations have even found themselves on differing sides. In just one generation, humans have pushed some fish species to the very brink. Fishing methods, human population growth, consumerism and waste, even poor economies in developing nations, where human survival outweighs local concerns for the environment, all contribute to the exhaustion of ocean resources.
Habitat degradation worries many environmental groups and scientists.
Pollution, in its many forms, can be devastating. Pollutants are ingested by each successive animal in the food chain, becoming even more concentrated in the largest predators, like dolphins. In some dolphins and whales, poisons are passed from mother to baby through the mother's milk, perhaps resulting in higher infant mortality. Heavy metals and pesticides have been found in cetaceans' blubber, lymph nodes, muscle, liver and brain. The animals of the ocean are not only bombarded by contaminants we've put in the water directly, but are made to suffer from all of the air-borne chemicals that have settled in our oceans' waters.