The Pros And Cons Of Whaling

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

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

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.

Are times changing? Records dating back to the 1931-1932 whale-hunting season (ten years before the International Whaling Commission was put in place to protect and stop whaling), 28,325 blue whales were slaughtered. In 1946, the Whaling Commission was formed; however, even with protection, thirty years later (1963-1964) over 29,255 sperms kills were hunted for their meat and other products. Today, even with protection, it is estimated that only 5-10% of the original whale population remains (Carwardine, Hoyt, Fordyce, & Gill, 1998).

For them, the whale is a kind of important food and whale blubber provided energy. Each spring, they would paddle out in their canoes which named Uniaks. Using harpoons which head are stone and inflated seal skins to force the whale to surface. When the whale tired, they would use harpoons repeatedly stab it. They will almost not wasted any part of whales. They are eating the skin, fins, blubber, flesh, tongue, intestines, kidneys and heart. The blubber was use provide light and heat and the bones were used as building materials and tools. “British and American vessels pursued the bowhead whale in Hudson Bay for just over half a century before bringing the whale stock close to extinction. During this period whaling exerted a powerful, sustained influence upon the Eskimo, who had hitherto enjoyed only sporadic and irregular contact with passing explorers and distant trading posts.” ( Ross, W. G. 1975) Because whalers coming, the life of Eskimo had many changes. May to September are the best time to whaling, after this there are the long (ten-month) period of inactivity. Long time stay in harbors facilitated prolonged contact with the Eskimos. The Eskimo became indispensable to the whalemen, assisting in whaling, hunting and overland travel. At the same time, the whalemen came to be a port of the new Eskimo life. “ A way of life in which firearms, whaleboats and a wide variety of imported goods played an increasingly important role. This economic interdependence constituted the foundation of the Eskimo-whalemen relation.” ( Ross, W. G. 1975) Furthermore, whale not the only one target for the whalemen. When hunting with Arctic, whalers came across many different animals such as polar bears, walruses, musk oxen and birds. Some were brought home for sale to the zoo, and this is the main reason why many animals which live in the Arctic came to Britain. However, some polar bears were killed. “ Polar bears were killed by rifles;

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

1,000 of whales are still being killed or captured of scientific research or captivity (“Ending Commercial Whaling”). In captivity whales will usually have been separated from their families or often in cruel hunts. People think it is okay to use animals for testing but animals react differently to drugs and putting whales and dolphins in tanks for our “entertainment” is wrong.

Fishermen kill whales for materials, food; and sometimes even money. Whales can be killed by fishermen because they are needed for essential materials, and are also used as a food source. Some people think that whaling should not be allowed because it is destroying the population of whales. Whaling should be legal around the world because of two main reasons. Whales are used as a food source, and for essential materials like oil, and fertilizer.

The Japanese have been whaling since the 12th century, but industrial scale whaling didn’t begin until the end of the 19th century (Wikipedia, 2016). The Japanese are not trying to carry on the 12th century traditions, rather they are trying to continue with industrial whaling, something clearly done solely for profit. I’m not a big TV watcher and we don’t even have cable, but I have seen several episodes of Whale Wars, a television program on the Animal Planet cable network. The show is about a ship called the Sea Shepherd whose purpose is to stop Japanese whaling. The Sea Shepherd’s

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

Whale killing began all the way back to 3000 b.c. So it has been going on for quite a long time. The people used whales for oil,meat and sometimes skin for. Now a days people use the whales for meat only. Why do you have to kill so many whales? Most people say that is just for the excitement and the pay off.

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

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).