page_title: Cetacea
section_title: Fishing
hierarchical_section_title: Cetacea / Status / Threats / Fishing
caption_attribution_description: Domino tiles made out of whale bone.
context_page_description: Cetaceans are aquatic mammals constituting the infraorder Cetacea. There are around 89 living species, which are divided into two parvorders. The first is the Odontoceti, the toothed whales, which consist of around 70 species, including the dolphin, porpoise, beluga whale, narwhal, sperm whale, and beaked whale. The second is the Mysticeti, the baleen whales, which have a filter-feeder system, and consist of fifteen species divided into three families, and include the blue whale, right whale, bowhead whale, rorqual, and gray whale.
  The ancient and extinct ancestors of modern whales lived 53 to 45 million years ago. They diverged from even-toed ungulates; their closest living relatives are hippopotamuses and others such as cows and pigs. They were semiaquatic and evolved in the shallow waters that separated India from Asia. Around 30 species adapted to a fully oceanic life. Baleen whales split from toothed whales around 34 million years ago.
  The smallest cetacean is Maui's dolphin, at 1 m and 50 kg; the largest is the blue whale, at 29.9 m and 173 t.
context_section_description: Dolphin pods often reside near large tuna shoals. This is known to fishermen, who look for dolphins to catch tuna. Dolphins are much easier to spot from a distance than tuna, since they regularly breathe. The fishermen pull their nets hundreds of meters wide in a circle around the dolphin groups, in the expectation that they will net a tuna shoal. When the nets are pulled together, the dolphins become entangled under water and drown. Line fisheries in larger rivers are threats to river dolphins.
  A greater threat than by-catch for small cetaceans is targeted hunting. In Southeast Asia, they are sold as fish-replacement to locals, since the region's edible fish promise higher revenues from exports. In the Mediterranean, small cetaceans are targeted to ease pressure on edible fish.
caption: Dominoes made of baleen
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