The controversy over "SCIENTIFIC" Japanese whaling has raged since the banning of commercial
whaling in 1986 -- are the Japanese going to finally stop their slaughter?
Hey gang, Trace here for DNews.
Whaling has been practiced by humanity in some form for centuries.
Ancient man hunted whales to ensure our species survival -- whale oil, meat, blubber, bones
and skin.
In ancient times, every part of the massive mammals was used, but today, whaling is a
very profitable enterprise coming at the expense of these gentle giants.
Many species have seen their numbers drop to near-extinction levels.
After four years in court, this week, the United Nations International Court of Justice
issued a ruling on March 31 ordering Japan to stop its annual whale hunting around Antarctica.
Their ruling states that Japan was killing whales illegally, and not for scientific research,
as the country has claimed.
In 1986, the International Whaling Commission banned whaling for profit, though allowed
for some whaling for scientific research.
Under this ban, countries are allowed to catch enough whales to determine if whaling could
be allowed in the future... but the court found that Japan was taking advantage of that
loophole; catching as many whales as they wanted and then writing scientific research
to match how many they killed.
The country's own scientific witness said he didn't know how the Japanese researchers
calculated their sample sized, and admitted their catching of fin and humpback whales
was useless, scientifically speaking.
The Japanese continued to hunt whales after the ban, they say, because of tradition.
Whaling has gone on for many generations.
One thousand years ago, the Basques began the first commercial whaling company.
As technology advanced, the number of whales killed annually grew.
By 1863, the ships were steam-powered and by 1868 the harpoon cannon was invented to
shoot explosives into a whales body.
By 1925, the British had built factory ships which could catch, kill, and process a whale
without bringing it to port.
In the sixty years that followed, 2 MILLION whales were slaughtered for profit.
Slowly, the public perception of whales has changed.
By the 20th century, humans no longer NEEDED to whale for meat, oil, blubber, bone or skin
-- they'd all been replaced by newer, more reliable technologies like modern farming,
kerosene, gasoline, synthetic fabrics and so on.
As the public tide began to turn, countries around the world appealed to the League of
Nations -- the predecessor to the United Nations -- to do something about it.
Regulations were put in place in 1931 to stop whales from becoming extinct, but they weren't
binding.
Bringing us back to the present day, companies in Japan, Norway and Iceland now have fleets
of ships accused of whaling for profit and flaunting the ban.
The Japanese claim their catches are for research, but since 2005, there have only been TWO scientific
papers published on only seven whales.
Not to mention the whale meat from this research ends up in commercial markets anyway.
Activists like the Sea Shepherd follow and taunt Japanese ships on the open sea in an
attempt to make whaling more trouble than it's worth.
Full disclosure, a show about the Sea Shepherd airs on Animal Planet, one of Discovery's
networks.
In the end, Japan has publicly agreed to stop whaling.
This doesn't mean they'll never whale again, but if they do so they'll have to justify
it with some actual science, and justify KILLING and not non-lethal methods like tagging or
sedation.
What do you think?
Is this tradition?
Are people making too much of whaling?
Or is it a horrendous practice?
We've got comment boxes for a reason, or we're on twitter at DNews or I'm at trace501 -- let's
wrap about it.
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