Save the Whales You Icelandic Bastards!
Posted on October 24, 2006 - Filed Under Environment/Conservation, Politics | 3 Comments
Iceland has in the last few days renewed commercial whaling. I completely oppose this for a variety of reasons, including a reason lampooned in the Economist, namely that whales are ‘charismatic mega-fauna’. Many in Iceland (sorry about the headline to those of you) and elsewhere are appalled by this decision, as it is not only immensly cruel and likely to further devastate whale populations, but also makes little economic sense since it shall undermine Iceland’s rapidly growing whale-watching industry.
The method used to kill whales is brutal in the extreme, as this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on whaling attests: “…whales are killed at sea often using explosive harpoons, which puncture the skin of the whale and then explode inside the body. Anti-whaling groups say this method of killing is cruel, particularly if carried out by inexperienced gunners, because the whale can take several minutes or even hours to die. In March 2003, Whalewatch, an umbrella group of 140 conservation and animal welfare groups from 55 countries published a report, Troubled Waters, whose main conclusion was that whales cannot be guaranteed to be killed humanely and that all whaling should be stopped. They quoted figures that said 20% of Norwegian and 60% of Japanese-killed whales failed to die as soon as they had been harpooned.”
Iceland has called its renewed whaling programme “sustainable”, however this is rubbish. Most whale populations are a tiny fraction of what they were 100 years ago, the majestic blue whale’s being only 1% of its former size. Furthermore, it is estimated that, because of the immoral amount of pollution funneled into the sea and atmosphere over the last few hundred years, many whales are categorically unsafe for human consumption owing to the high level of toxins trapped in their blubber.
Japan, while not officially returning to commercial whaling yet (it carries out ‘scientific’ whaling), has for years been busy buying the votes of member of the International Whaling Commission. Any nation can join this shambles of an organisation, including landlocked countries with no history of whaling. Thus, Japan has bribed scores of developing world countries to join this commission and vote with them in return for aid packages. The Japanese government pursues this policy despite there being virtually no market at all for whale meat in Japan.
I don’t know enough about this issue to say much more than this, however there are plenty of websites devoted to it. I’ll leave you with some links.
BBC Guide to endangered Whales
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3 Responses to “Save the Whales You Icelandic Bastards!”
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While id agree with the basic thrust of your arguement – surely you’re misrepresenting the pro side – they’re hardly just doing it ‘because they can’ are they? There must be a proper (if disagreeable) reason..?
I think the current Japanese government are interesting in resuming it to appease traditionalists within the ruling party. Again, I think traditionalism influenced Iceland’s recent decision and Norway have been whaling for decades, so again it’s something of a tradition there too. There exists an argument that the whales eat too many fish, but as far as I’m aware whales mainly eat plancton (I could well be wrong on this point though). I don’t really know where the economic incentive of whaling lies; whales killed near Japan are heavily polluted with mercury and other sundry things and there’s obviously not much of an export market for whale meat. I suppose they just do it the sake of the domestic food market. Like the Koreans with dogs.
Cian, Cian, Cian. Look at that picture. That whale is obviously smiling. He’s happy to have a nice little sunning session on the pier and will no doubt soon flop back in to the water and swim away. Now let’s go for a pint.