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Whaling is Killing Thousands, Bringing Whales to Near Extinction

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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…show more content…
Despite claiming the slaughter is needed to learn more about whales, Japan has not offered any new worthwhile information about whales, with the exception that they eat large quantities of krill (Zelko, 2013, p. A. 13) . Japan has been using this excuse, among many others, since 1986. In the decades Japan has used this excuse, it seems almost ridiculous that Japan has not learned anything new about the mammals’ breeding, migratory, or any other habits. When Australia took Japan to the International Court of Justice to challenge the validity of Japan’s scientific whaling industry, Australia’s agent to the court, Bill Campbell, stated, “Japan seeks to cloak its ongoing commercial whaling in the lab coat of science.” He later told journalists: “You don’t kill 935 whales a year to conduct scientific research. You don’t even need to kill one whale to conduct scientific research” (McCurry, 2013) .
Many whaling countries give the excuse that hunting whales is traditional. In Japan, this justification is baseless. Japan did not begin whaling until after World War II (Zelko, 2013, p. A. 13) . In other places such as the Faroe Islands, the practice is actually traditional as it has taken place ever since the Viking settlers arrived there (O'Barry, 2013, p. 18) . Traditions are not always morally correct. Most customs are not harmful, but whaling is not one of them. Hanging African Americans was once seen as an acceptable custom as was burning women at the stake for being
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