The Pros And Cons Of Commercial Whalinging

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.

A committee from an organization such as the WTO may be a good starting point for deciding who should participate in the negotiations for promoting the whale ban. Because an issue this complex and involved needs to have negotiations on who will be participating in the negotiations. The villagers are much more limited on the resources they have for such negotiations. It is fortunate that the nations of Norway and Japan appear to be aligned with the villagers so that additional resources are there to promote the values of that culture. And since the impact of the whaling ban is so large on these local cultures, the negotiating parameters should be weighted to their side in some manner to prevent a large number of people with little to lose out-weighing the small number of people who have everything to lose. But keep in mind, these weights cannot be determined without accurate (unbiased) and timely data on the impact to the environment and the

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

The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos, is an award winning documentary that spotlights how the Japanese hunt and kill dolphins by the tens of thousands and how a group of people try to stop and expose this to the world. The chapter about the International Whaling Commission (IWC) brings forward a few key points that need to be discussed. The IWC is a group of nations that come together and make decisions based on how they can preserve cetaceans. The smaller cetaceans, like dolphins, are not protected under the bigger umbrella. In order to bypass the rules of the IWC, a loophole is used; a nation can claim that they are killing and collecting whales for research and the IWC will not stop them. The Japanese are trying to legalize whaling worldwide.

The article “Iceland Tourism Courts Controversy with Whale-Hunting Trips”, written by Tom Mackenzie and Ed Kiernan talks about how one of the richest men in Iceland, Kristjan Loftsson owns the only commercial fin whaling company in the world. I believe there is room for both whale hunting and whale watching as long as whale hunting is kept limited. There should be a tracking system where each company should be given the annual quota and if they go over, penalize them with a charge. Whale watching is important because as Masson from the article said, “I think 99 percent of the tourists who come to Iceland, they are coming here to experience wild nature at its best”. People like watching whales because of wild nature and they enjoy watching them in the water. The reason

What has become of our world? Look at the murder and violence in our streets and the brutal sport of death bluntly referred to as ‘Whaling’. I’m sure you’re all fairly familiar with the Japanese whaling vessels and those activists calling for legal action against those savages. But, that isn’t what concerns me today. What concerns me, is the ordinary citizens who are currently unaware of this assault of whales by their voracious Norwegian enemies. The Norwegian whale quota for this current year is 880 whales. 880 mighty masses flailing around hopelessly with a javelin fixed in their side. Let’s imagine for a second that our roles were reversed. That we were one of these 880 whales being dragged away from our home, our

This stipulation proved important in the evolution of the IWC over time because as non-whaling nations began to join in the 1960s and 1970s, they increased the pressure on the IWC to turn its focus from that of market regulation to a preservationist or conservationist standpoint (Andressen in Implementation and effectiveness… 1998). But why would nations who did not participate in the whaling industry want to join the IWC? One reason might be that IWC membership was an easy (and cheap) way to improve their reputation as “green-minded” without having to make any significant changes in policy. Furthermore, the decades between the 1960s and 1980s saw an increase in the number of NGO’s taking on the cause of whale conservation which also drove the IWC to re-evaluate its goals and objectives. As a result, the IWC agreed upon a 10-year moratorium on commercial whaling in1982 and put it into effect in 1986. The moratorium prohibited all commercial whaling, and granted certain quotas to indigenous peoples who needed the whales for subsistence, and to scientific research efforts. After the10 year period, it was decided that a Comprehensive Assessment would be conducted and enough data would be collected in order to reconsider the moratorium.

Since the dawn of civilization, humans ruled earth, taking what they pleased without worrying about the consequences. Modern society has evolved to understand the fundamental flaw in consuming the world’s resources with abandon. As with the hunting of many other species, whaling was an unregulated activity. However, in 1986, the world community shifted its stance on whaling and passed international legislation banning commercial whaling. Dangerously close to being snuffed out, the whales have begun to claw their way back from extinction. Despite the positive strides taken on the behalf of whales, the murder of thousands of whales each year is sanctioned by a number of countries under the guise of scientific research. Moreover, in many

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.

Supposedly, in Japan, the whales are killed for their meat for science however they were instead being sold in food markets or even given away for free to hospitals and schools. This encourages the consumption of whale meat. The Japanese kill many different types of whales for example, 200 minke whales, 100 sei whales, 50 bryde’s and 10 sperm whales under scientific research. There is also Norway, which didn’t respect the IWC ban until 1993 as they continued hunting for minke whales. Norway has a fixed number of whalers its whalers are permitted to kill for commercial reasons.

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

In America, it is believed that whales and dolphins are mammals who are intelligent, are capable of learning, and should have the right to be free (Brain Power). Because of this, and as a superpower, the U.S. is able to use their economic influence to ban the killing of these mammals (Culture and Globalization). Norway and Japan, whose fishing and whale hunting traditions go back centuries, believe they should have an exemption from this whale hunting ban on cultural grounds, especially since the whales they hunt are not endangered and therefore there should not be an environmental concern (Culture

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 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

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