Should Animal Whaling Be Prevented

Whaling is an old and inhumane practice that should be stopped. In fact the act of commercial whaling is illegal under international law. Japan still continues this practice today, despite orders to stop given to the Japanese government by the UN’s International Court of Justice in March of 2014 (WDC). Even before that ruling Japan has been asked by the international community to stop whaling, but they continued to do so through a loop hole in the International Whaling Commission or IWC. That hole about the size of a loop, says that whaling for scientific research is legal. The Japanese government should stop illegal practice of whaling because it is inhumane, these whales will go extinct if this continues, and we the international community have already asked for this to stop.

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.

In my opinion, by doing this it would balance both whale hunting and whale watching and I do not feel people then would have any problem because they know that whale hunting cannot completely stop as so many people would lose their jobs but this would at least make it better for people who like whale watching. By limiting the amount of whale hunting, owners of fin whaling company like Kristjan Loftsson might lose some profit on the year but at least no one will be against them if they do not over hunt the whales. As Kristjan Loftsson believes “the world has wrongly turned against him”, just shows that he does think of other people’s opinions on whale hunting and if they set a quota to a reasonable number then people won’t have a problem and he would not think that the world is against him as he thinks now. People all around the world will not question the owners and they will still enjoy watching the whales for wild

Jay Griffiths, an award winning british writer, wrote an article speaking out about the assault on the riches of nature, in which she speaks of the damage we’ve done to marine life. From the time the first humans evolved, we have utilised whales to sustain ourselves. We used their blubber, meat and bones to survive. Even today, we still use them. But differently. Today, we stick them in tanks like a human in a bathtub and call it an amusement park. Marine parks, like SeaWorld, and the people who support them have committed injustices to these beautiful animals that needs to stop now.

Killer whales, also known as Orca’s, are the largest members of the dolphin family and the top predator in their ecosystem. They are one of the most intelligent marine creatures, especially due to their acute senses of sight and hearing. The word Orca means connection and leadership. People travel from all over the world just to catch a glimpse of the astounding whale. Their beauty has mesmerized humans for generations, but for many Orca’s, captivity limits their freedom and enjoyment of life. In 1965, orca poaching was at its prime. Over a thousand whales were being captured for either greed or for the purpose of captivity (Timeline of Commercial Whaling Muller). Captivity is a prison for many orcas, it not only damages the whale’s health, but also has a negative impact on breeding, and the danger of humans.

Another argument against the expansion of whaling involves the morality and ethical aspects of killing whales. Currently, explosive harpoons tipped with a 30-g penthrite grenade are used by Norwegian and Icelandic whaling fleets as the primary mechanism of causing lethal trauma (Knudsen and Oen 2003). If there is any question whether the harpoon delivered a lethal blow, rifles chambered in .375 or .458 are fired at the cranium. Average time to death in minke whales in the North Atlantic was calculated at 141 seconds with a maximum time to death of 90 minutes (Simmonds 2006). Conservationists consider even the average time to death too long to be considered humane. Another point anti-whaling groups bring up is the high degree of intelligence

Me and my crew here on the waves of the Antarctic sea have not seen nor tracked any signs of a blue whale since our scientific equipment became operational two weeks ago. The blue whale, the largest animal on planet Earth, has been labeled as endangered on the conservation status chart for more than fifty years and has yet to change. Ever since the banning of blue whale hunting in 1966, blue whales have not increased in population at the rate we have predicted. To this day, even with all the limits hunters have on the ocean, blue whales struggle with accidental beaching and ship collisions.

You look down into the deep blue ocean while you're whale watching, and you see close to the horizon the white fresh spray of salt water coming out of a Humpback whale, the only Humpback whale. You might wonder where the rest are. These rare incredible creatures have been around for a long time, and is forgotten and could be gone forever and extinct. A Humpback whale is a large marine animal with many humps on its back. These rare animals are in the ocean trying to survive and protect themselves from predators like us. People are doing many things to harm and endanger Humpback whales existence. One thing that is causing them to be endangered is private commercial boats. Private commercial boats are known to strike through humpback whales causing

I went to the Scottsdale Community College library website and searched whaling. All the sources I chosen was through Academic Search Premier. Every thing that I read put me in a new perspective about my topic. I learned that whaling has been going on since the eleventh century, and commercial whaling became illegal in 1931 (Matera 3). I found out that the United States actually whaled at some point but it was not for the meat, it was for the whale oil. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, whaling started to become a problem. During this time Japan started to be the main whaling country, this is when everything flipped upside down ("Greenpeace Says Japan Ready for Whaling."). In another source I was reading, I found out that in the 1980s, eight countries joined the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to stop the world from whaling (Hyder 10). I also looked more into the Sea Shepherds. The Sea Shepherds are a full volunteer based program to go out into the artic and try and save as many whales as they can. Every year they go out and face Japan’s whaling fleet, which are five boats against the SS three. I learned that Japan got very hostile in the last couple tours (Kita 3). They were ramming into the SS boats, even the little speedboat, which was an eighth of the size of their ship. When I was reading a different article called “Whales”, I learned that whales eat around forty thousand krill a day and if whales

And whale killing has been happing since the 12th century. There are many varieties of threats that are going toward the whales, but most of them are direct results of human activities. These can include hunting for food, scientific research, or even used for beauty products. Eating whale meat is an old tradition it is a very impenetrable, or impossible to understand, as they say. Whale meat has been used in everyday foods in japan, Norway, and Iceland. They say if you eat whale meat you are brave and are given power. The amount of meat being sold has gone down but isn’t completely gone. On the other hand, Japan has a catch, they barley eat whale so why do they continue to kill them? The answer: scientific research. Japan has been stating that they have been killing whales for scientific research, but yet none of its go towards that. A scientific permit allows japan to be able to hunt whales. By having this it allows them to use, sell, or give away the whale meat. Whale is also used in everyday makeup as well. Their blubber and spermaceti (the waxy substance from the head of sperm whales) was great things for lipstick. Whales are used for things you might not even know, and that is what’s killing the going extinct

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 has become a global environmental issue as vast numbers of whales are killed commercially and scientifically every year. Intense debate on the necessity of whaling has been stirred but failed to be resolved due to the lacking of pragmatic measures employed by the responsible parties. Whaling nations continue to defend their whaling right for cultural and research purposes. Yet, ethical and humanity issues are among the controversial disputes raised by concerned public. In February 2010, International Whaling Commission (IWC) proposed a plan of lifting whaling ban by limiting scientific whaling activities with the intention of reducing overall number of whales killed besides solving the current impasse between pro

Aside from radical protests against whaling, other NGOs such as Greenpeace have “peacefully protested” the ongoing whaling, by avoiding “fleet wars” the SSCS partakes in. By 1973, Greenpeace confronted whaling fleets in response to the decline of blue whales and other species. In the midst of a peaceful battle to defend the whales, Greenpeace snapped a photograph of a dead sperm whale, burdening the public to the IWC in requests for justice. Responding to the incident in 1979, the IWC established the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary as a conservation measure, and in 1982 the IWC declared a Global Moratorium. The desire of the IWC to conserve their image of “anti-whalers” driven them to act immediately from the accusations over Japan. The establishment of the moratorium was a plan to cease commercial whaling in 1986 and in 2003 to allow for the

They do have pertinent points and therefore will be negative economic consequences if whaling is stopped. The counter argument is that whaling has been banned since 1886 by the international whaling commission. Whaling, Wikipedia.org.

R.L. Brownell, Jr., D.P. DeMaster, D.F. Doak and T.M. Williams (eds.). Whales, Whaling and Ocean