Why Whaling Should Be Banned

code on whale hunting. The United States never depended on whale meat like Japan. They mostly whale hunted for a hobby. The Congress feels that whales are a unique resource of great scientific interest to mankind and are a vital part of the marine ecosystem. Man has overexploited whales for many years, highly reducing species and endangering others. The United States has extended its responsibilities to protect all marine animals. They think that whales are a particular interest to citizens of the United States. Japan started whaling way back in the 2nd Century BC. They whale because they have whale meat as part of their diet. In 1946, whale meat was not considered special food anymore but was necessary to keep the Japanese healthy and alive because they depended on it for so long. People ate whale meat as a source of protein whether they liked it or not. In 1947, about 47% of the total animal protein was whale meat. Until the 1960's, whale meat continued to be their main source of protein. In 1962, the whaling industry recorded 226,000 tons of whale meat; this was the highest amount throughout the history of the Japanese whaling. The percentage of whale meat consumption compared to the total animal meat consumption was 23% in 1964. (whalenet 1) Whale meat was the only meat served in school lunches, which began in 1947 and continued until the

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.

Whaling by definition, is the hunting and killing of whales for their meat, blubber and oil. The whaling industry has been around since the 11th century, when the Basques started trading products from North Atlantic right whales (Whaling FAQs). Today, the demand for whale meat may be declining, however we cannot be positive that whale populations can survive as they now face other threats (Whaling).

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.

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).

According to the whaling library, during the World War II the industry of fishing and whaling decrease (OU, 2016). After, it finished the depletion of the fish and whales continue. Later in 1946, the International Whaling Commission was created with similar

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.

People killing whales. What an awful thing but yet there is only about 300,000-350,000 whales left in the entire world. If you have not figured it out yet my paper is being written on the whale killing and how it is bad.

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.

. Japan is another nation that claims its commercial whaling has specific social and cultural values that are unique to Japan.

Whaling is the act of hunting whales for their blubber, bones and meat which are commonly used for jewelry, tools, food and medicinal purposes. The practice of whaling can be dated as far back as 6000 B.C.E as whale bones were used in ancient tools. Increased popularity growth of whale products in the 18th and 19th century caused whaling to become a competitive industry, whalers became desperate and ignorant, leading to over whaling. This resulted in the extinction of many important whale species including Killer Sperm Whale and caused numerous others to become endangered.

’Yes they should’’ were the words from John R.Platt a freelance journalist covering environmental issues. In his report he said “Over the past decade, more than 1,000 rangers have died in the line of duty, according to statistics for World Ranger Day. Some deaths were caused by accidents or animals.Most,however, were murderers committed by heavily armed poachers”. If poachers were shot on sight then many if the human casualties and most of the animals casualties could decrease by almost 70%.

Filmed in 2009, it follows the issue revolving around Taiji’s secret cove which is used to capture dolphins resulting in the market of selling dolphin meat and dolphins for entertainment. Key players, within this unnoticed problem in Japan, are the Japanese delegates in the IWC and the Taiji fishermen. Referring back to the role of the IWC in this issue of hunting, there is an issue of recognizing the complications of this hunting and their failure to take action. First, the Japanese delegates within the IWC refuse to recognize dolphins as part of the whale family, however dolphins are within the same kingdom, class, and order of whales. In addition to this, to gain votes, Japan helps poor nations in order to “buy” out that nation’s vote within the IWC, which allows Japan to do as they please and keep the public in the dark. Japan’s process of action is to ignore the

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).