Cultural Traditions And Mores Of The World

Long ago, native tribes, from many places in the world, depended largely on whales for protein in their diets. They were also able to use much of the whale for oil, thus began a tradition of whaling. The first documented whaling expedition occurred in South Korea

When whaling was first started in America it was because the Basques had started hunting and trading products made from whales. First it was the Dutch that had followed them in their whaling and then the British followed them. Finally, America followed the British and soon the huge expedition had started to hunt whales for the oil inside them.

Whale hunting is a very controversial issue. Some argue that it is morally wrong to hunt an animal with such a high level of intelligence, some argue that whales shouldn’t be hunting due to their dwindling numbers and their risk for extinction, and others argue that it is the only means of food for some indigenous people who have been hunting whales for centuries. I personally, am against commercial whaling, but do understand the IWC’s (International Whaling Commission) catch limits for aboriginal subsistence whaling.

Whaling has been occurring for over thousands of years. Norwegians and the Japanese’s where the first to hunt whales, as early as 4,000 years ago (Marrero and Thornton 2011). Whaling traditions varied in different parts of the globe, for instance the Inuit hunted in the Arctic Ocean, the Basque hunted in the Atlantic, and the Japanese hunted in the Pacific. All these cultures relied on whales to provide material goods for food,

According to Greenpeace, “up to 80% of [Japanese] respondents disagreed with whaling on the high seas. And 85% said they did not know endangered species were being hunted by Japanese ships in the Antarctic Ocean”(Ganderton, 2014). More than that, both Japan and Norway have significantly declining sales of whale meat. The impact of whaling on small fishing villages might impact my opinion on this issue, but I don’t think the impact is significant enough to warrant whaling, especially when, for example in Norway, the government has to subsidize the whaling industry because they can’t sell enough meat to

Since 1966, commercial hunting of whales has been prohibited by the International Whaling Commission (iwc.int). However, some countries still hunt them, such as Japan, Norway and Iceland, for instance, killing of these mammals is permitted for scientific research and a few more are killed by Japanese in the Southern Ocean for blubber and their meat.

Do you agree with the Norwegian and Japanese position on permitting the hunting of non-endangered species of whales as a cultural exemption?

[Note to student reviewer: This paper answers the assignment’s six “Questions for Discussion”, but not in a one-for-one order. A synthesis of the questions and an examination of the concerns over protecting local cultures from the impacts of globalization, as they pertain to whale hunting, are presented. To assist the reviewer, question numbers have been included in brackets, denoting which section answers a specific assignment question.]

Commercial whaling should be banned because they could become extinct and can also stop the process of making the ocean better for other animals. By over whaling, the increase of whaling, would then decrease in one rapaid movement and also will be causing the water to be polluted. Even though the whales have been killed centuries ago, it hasn't caused ecological damage due to our un-advanced technologies. Later on, hunting materials start to evolve between the 17th and 20th centuries where whales today are killed greatly from the increase of globalized commercial whaling.Therefore, it causes many species of whale not to be recovered from whaling ever since. Furthermore, an Anti-whaling group called Greenpeace have estimated that there's only

Before the 1986 whaling moratorium Japan had one of the largest commercial whaling fleets although they also had a small scientific program. From 1954 to 1986 Japans scientific whaling programs killed 840 whales globally for scientific research however after 1986 Japan’s new larger Scientific whaling program killed over 8321 for research in 18 years 1986-2004, almost a tenfold increase in half the amount of time. All other nations undergoing scientific whaling research killed around 2100 whales between 1952-2005 (Gales, et al.,

Commercial whaling is a serious world issue that has always been difficult for those who are in support and those who are against it. Each group defends their side with convincing arguments. Morally, whaling is wrong, but do the reasons for whaling outweigh the reasons to cease the primitive hunts? By studying the effects of whaling,realizing how culture has changed over time, and taking note of the money that would be saved, it can clearly be seen that there is no longer a current need for whaling to continue. Efforts have been made to try to stop whaling, but with no help from any authoritative figure,nothing has been done to regulate the whaling. The famous sea shepherd, known for its strikes against whaling, can even be seen on

Whaling is defined as hunting and killing of whales by humans for resources, mainly meat, blubber and baleen (whalebone) obtained from whales. These resources are then sold for commercial purposes and thus, whaling has become economical important for centuries (Joanne 2007; The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia 2007). Scientific whaling is conducted by hunting whales for research purposes and further analysis to study on whale’s behaviour, characteristics and distribution (Joanne 2007). Commercial whaling is a controversial whaling practice that exploits whale products for trade and profit. Recently, Japan, Norway and Iceland are the major contributors of commercial whaling and deeply support any other whaling activities (Joanne 2007). Moratorium on commercial whaling 1986 is a global ban of hunting whales for commercial purposes, implemented by International Whaling Commission (IWC). Under Article VIII, unlimited scientific research is permitted but sufficient data and analysis are required by Science Committee set up by IWC (Papastavrou 2006).

For centuries nations across the globe have hunted a variety of animals to provide for their inhabitants’ diets and economies, which for some species has resulted in endangerment or extinction. Several species of whale have become endangered because of the process of whale hunting, and in order to combat excessive whale hunting the International Whaling Comission (IWC) set forth a ban in 1986 to halt the whaling industry (International Whaling Comission, n.d.); however, nations such as Norway and Japan insisted that their practices continue on the basis of cultural exception. The economies of their whaling regions, they argued, would be put into danger by the moratorium, and so the nations have been allowed to continue hunting small amounts of the non-endangered winke whales and, in some cases, fin whales.

For this week’s written assignment, I have chosen to address the Norwegian and Japanese positions on permitting whale hunting as a cultural exemption. As someone who was born in Norway, and has visited several whaling towns, I feel that I have some idea of the importance of whaling to Norwegian cultures and national identity. Although Japan is culturally and geographically a very different place to Norway, I feel that the importance of whaling to both cultures provides some similarities between the two nations.

To form an opinion on whether we should permit hunting of non-endangered species of whales, we need substantial background information on the pros and cons of whaling and the impacts of it on the effected society or societies. We need to do extensive research on the positions of both sides and weigh their arguments against our own judgements. Therefore, I will leave the first question for now and I will give an answer to it at the end of this essay after I have put forward my arguments.