Norwegian Whaling Essay

Keeping whales in captivity is a very brutal way of making money. Many people do not realize that whales are not just fish; even though they live in the ocean, they are actually considered as mammals, and are part of the dolphin family (Killer Whale 1). Unlike goldfish and turtles that we can keep in aquariums, killer whales are huge, wild animals that are meant to live in the sea. It has been documented that “no fewer than 21 of the world total of 42 orcas held in

The debate surrounding Makah whaling is a heated one to say the least. There are valid points on both sides of the argument, but there is one side I find to be more valid once the facts have been looked at. I will examine and present my findings regarding past and current laws and regulations related to whaling, types of whaling, other countries that take an active part in whaling (and why), as well as the Makah culture – both past and present. In this paper I will argue why the Makah should not be allowed to resume whaling, as it is unnecessary and could potentially put the grey whale species back on the endangered list.

Did you know that in the last 50 years over two million whales have been killed? The United States views whaling very differently than Japan does. It is a complicated and controversial topic. Many people have opinions about whale hunting. However, everyone should know both sides of the whale hunting issues before they act on the issue. To start out I am going to tell you a little about whaling. The first whale hunters were in the prehistoric times. At first they would just kill and eat beached whales. That became such a habit that they started hunting them. Most whale hunters use harpoons, guns, lances, or bombs that blow up inside the whale. They use catcher boats, or kayaks. In 1925, whalers developed

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.

On the other side of the world, we have been losing millions of whales. Whales are still being killed across the world’s oceans, Whaling is the hunting of whales for meat, oil, blubber, and scientific research. Various coastal communities have long histories of subsistence whaling and harvesting beached whales.

They feel that the IWC has become a conservation organization, where it was originally meant to be a regulatory agency for whaling (Schweder 2001). There have been accusations of the commission being purposely “uncertain” of the status of whales to keep the moratorium in effect, when in reality we know enough to open a sustainable fishery (Schweder 2001). There have been studies on both fin and minke whales indicating that a fishery would be sustainable. Fin whales populations off Iceland appear to be increasing at 4% per year, and minke populations off both Iceland and Norway appear to be stable, though it should be noted that the IWC indicates that fin whale populations in the northeast Atlantic haven’t been thoroughly assessed (Borchers et al. 2009, Vikingsson et al. 2009). The Marine Research Institute of Iceland has calculated that up to 150 fin whales and 400 minke whales can be sustainably harvested per year (Icelandic Fisheries 2014). Because fin whale populations are stable around Iceland, the government does not consider their IUCN listing as “endangered” relevant to their hunting status. A 1998 modeling study on minke whales in Norway showed potential population growth from 63,033 in 1995 to 70,733 in 2010 if 600 whales were taken every year (Bjorndal and Conrad 1998). Though Norway has increased their quota to 1,286, the number of minkes killed in a given year has not exceeded 600 individuals (IWC 2014). These potential harvest numbers are considered conservative, since the sighting methods used to estimate abundance were also conservative in nature. Neither Iceland nor Norway has exceeded their self imposed annual quotas since the quotas’ inception (IWC

The increase in the fishing industry could be due to any number of things such as the weather, the time of year, or even the lack of a whale’s presence. It does not suggest that the whales are consuming the fish or that they are depleting important fish populations. Also, it has been proven that commercial whaling does impact the whaling industries in pro whaling countries. If money is the end goal for some of these countries they could just adopt the whale watching industry rather than commercial whaling because in the end, due to conservation movements, it will probably be making more money. If Japan wants to continue whaling under scientific research pretenses, then I’m sure they can find more humane and less invasive ways to collect data such as studying beached or already dead whales rather than killing them, as well as taking samples from live whales using minimally invasive techniques. Furthermore, in countries such as Norway who commercially whale specifically for the meat for human consumption, well they should be required to put warning labels on whale meat detailing how the animal was killed as well as how much mercury the meat

Imagine that you are a whale swimming peacefully in the ocean, minding your own business. Then, all of a sudden, something sharp hits you, and digs into your skin. Then, another object hits you again. The pain is very painful, but not enough pain to kill you yet. You keep getting hit by these sharp objects, and your enormous whale body does not give up quite yet. When you get dragged up onto this big boat, you know that you will be cut up into pieces and there is nothing you can do about it now. This is what happens to hundreds of whales a year, and it is terrible. Therefore, there is no reason for this nonsense of killing whales. Whale hunting must be stopped because consuming whale meat is unhealthy, whales are becoming endangered, and there is no need to kill whales for scientific reasons.

Whales did nothing to you so why are you killing them? Good morning fellow Greenpeace leaders, this is why whale hunting must be stopped in all countries. Whale hunting is an act of selfishness and cruelty. Each year around 2000 whales are killed. These killings almost entirely occur in Japan, Norway and Iceland. The affected species by whale hunting are Fin whales, Sperm whales, Humpback whales and Minke whales.

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.

Norway want a return to whaling. If it were not for the IWC, whalers from this country would be hunting about 2,000 minke whales a year,

Countless whales are killed each year rounding to at least 1,500 a year, decreasing in its population by…(edit). Decreasing this amount of whales could cause critical damage to the climate and the health of the ecosystem. Therefore, commercial whaling should be banned because whales could become extinct and can also stop the process of making the ocean better for other animals. By over whaling, the increase of commercial whaling would also increase in one rapid movement, causing whales to be extinct and will cause the water to be contaminated and worse into the future. Even though various whales were killed centuries ago(period of 100 years), it hasn’t caused numerous damages to its population. Later on, somewhere in the 17th and 20th century, whales are killed more sufficiently from countless numbers of whaling industries. Moreover, it caused many varieties of whales to deteriorate (worsen) from whaling. According to an Anti-whaling group Greenpeace, it has estimated that there’s only about 100 left of West-Pacific Gray Whales. Furthermore, Palumbi and Roman's whale population studies also have also shown that the North Atlantic Humpback to be 20 times less after commercial whaling came into play. "If the historic population(of

In 1946 the newly formed International Whaling Commission enacted a global moratorium on commercial whaling (Robbins). The IWC was formed in hopes of protecting whales and making sure that whales were spared. Without enforcement of the rules and restrictions for any nations, the problem has not gone away. Without whales the ecosystem begins to falter, the whale being one of the vital producers, and consumers of the ocean. There are countries that refused to agree to the terms of the moratorium, regardless of the damage such actions would cause. The moratorium permits whaling for scientific research, and that is the mask current whaling countries hide behind (Zelko). They argue that they are not violating any restrictions, because Article 8 of the 1946 moratorium states that whaling for scientific research is not part of the agreement (McCurry). During the 1970’s people began to care about the whales that were being killed faster than they could reproduce (Robbins). In 1986 whaling was officially banned, some nations ignored the ban, and still do. In 1993, meat DNA tested at a fish market in Japan showed that whale meat was clearly being sold, but there were no consequences. The ban made by the IWC is not

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).

Like any other set of data, statistics found on whaling are analyzed by compairing numbers that are gathered by other whalers or data that has been collected over the years. “…for many of the 20th century fisheries there are regular summary reports by national agencies and international bodies, usually giving the number of whales landed at shore stations or processed at sea by specific ships.”(Reeves & Smith, 2010) The data collected on whaling is put into three separate types. The first type of data is just that, the number of whales landed, the second type is “reports of catch and production by pre20th century commercial shore whaling establishments.”, and the third data is that of which is collected from catch and production by voyages (Reeves & Smith, 2010)