Protection of species

This approach, developed on land, where it has saved a number of species from extinction, develops differently in the sea. It has been used in the sea to protect a number of marine mammal species from extinction, and several other marine species, including certain fish and corals listed for protection. Several species of whales have been brought back from the brink of extinction by international protection, which ended whaling by the vast majority of nations and in effect restricted it for those nations that refuses to stop (Norway, Japan and Iceland). For some species, such as the right whale, protection has come tool late, and extinction of some genetically distinct populations seams inevitable.

There are serious problems with protecting marine biodiversity by protecting endangered species.

• the majority of endangered species will not be identified or protected. Many species remain unknown to science and therefore are of unknown status. Consequently, many endangered species and their habitats will go unlisted and unprotected. Furthermore, enforcement of protection at high seas is difficult at best.
  
• a problem of "incidental" kills.
  
• a complexity and interdependence of the food web. In such an ecosystem, once species are endangered, they have already ceased to play their role in the functioning of the ecosystem. Protecting them at the late stage will hardly enable them to resume their position. Considering that, it is obvious that the living gene banks are important only as a final, desperate effort to save important genetic material.
  Protected areas