Whaling. The act of killing whales. Usually with harpoons and then a rifle shot. You’d think it would be over and done with several decades, or even a century, ago. But, it’s still alive and well, despite an international ban on commercial whaling almost thirty years ago. But, why? And should this practice continue? I say that it should be stopped. Simple as that. No more whaling.
Whaling used to be a commonplace thing as hunters would sail out for, maybe, years at a time to reach the best whaling lands (waters?). The whales were harpooned and harvested for meat, oil, blubber, and scientific research. However, we don’t need whale meat, oil, and blubber anymore. Additionally, scientific research can be done without the need for killing the animal, or at least killing hundreds of them.
Iceland, Norway, and Japan are the only countries in our current times that still hunt whales, much to a lot of people’s dislike. Japan’s whaling fleet was long covered on a seemingly controversial show, Whale Wars, on Animal Planet. I must admit, I did watch it. I did like it. It also didn’t make me dislike Japan any less because I understood, somehow, that many countries are different than the one I live in and have different things that are “normal”. Yet, despite some minor setbacks to their whaling mission, they were out in the Antarctic Ocean this past November with a quota to kill 333 minke whales. Although these whales are of a “least concern” conservation status, the lowest ranking, their actual population is unknown. Thankfully, the Japanese whaling fleet isn’t concentrating its efforts on more endangered cetacean species like it once did in previous decades.
But, what they haven’t said is what the scientific research is for? What do they need to know about the whales in the Antarctic that we don’t already know? If they want to find out about how deep they dive, the water temperature at that depth, or how long they can hold their breath for, then they can capture one painlessly and attach a small computer-like device that records all of those measures, plus some. They’ve been used on many other animals such as seals, sharks, dolphins, and other larger whales. Well, then, if that is not the information they’re looking for, maybe they want something else.
They probably want to know about the whales’ biology or the condition of the whales in a certain area. Well, unfortunately, you don’t need to kill them for that either. You can just take a blubber sample. Other scientists can get a skin or a blubber sample so easily. Just throw a rod at them with a string attached to one end for easy retrieval. The other end of the rod, if it hits the mark, is sharp and easily takes out a little sample that will not hurt the whale a single bit. Just think, they’re so large, anyway, they probably wouldn’t have even felt it. That little sample of a single whale can tell researchers so much about that individual. All those facts gained, without a single whale lost.
Well, now, maybe you are thinking about maybe the Japanese fleet wants to research the internal organs of the whales. However, I’m highly doubtful that you’d need to kill three hundred of the same species of whales every year for that. We probably know very well what those internal organs look like in a whale by now. Besides, from what I’ve seen from Whale Wars, the whaling fleet chucks the internal organs off the side of the boat to float away in the current.
Of course, I haven’t discussed the meat. What happens to the meat? What do they use it for? They are seen carting off cuts of meat after butchering up a whale. They certainly don’t throw it overboard for the creatures of the deep to devour. The meat is taken back to Japan for commercial sale. My roommate has had it before in a school lunch. She said it tastes like chicken (but doesn’t everything taste like chicken?). However, from the other side, if they truly are doing scientific research on these whales and find the need to kill them for said research, why waste the meat? That would be like killing a perfectly healthy cow to research something internal and letting the perfectly fine meat to go to waste. The meat could be used for something and that’s what they have done.
It all boils down to one thing: tradition. They hold onto the practice of whaling because of old traditions. Japan is an old country where old traditions still live among the new technology. I think I should put it in a little analogy. Imagine something you do all the time, every year. Whether it be a family meal at a holiday or something small, like an advent calendar for Christmas. For me, it’s my grandmother’s amazing homemade doughnuts at the end of February, right before Mardi gras. Now, imagine if one year, that traditional thing your family does just stopped. It stopped and never came back. You’d be sad, a little angry, or disappointed. Well, it’s the same here.
I’m not saying that it’s okay for whaling to continue because it is tradition. I’m saying that it is traditional and, as such, there will be great resistance in removing this practice. But, we can advance a little step at a time and hope that soon, whaling will cease to exist in all countries in the world.
