(JP) Should we hunt whales?

[Guest guest]

TO WHALE OR NOT?

 

Is Japan justified in seeking a resumption of whaling?

Are antiwhalers justified in demanding that it not?

E-mail your thoughts to: community

 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20050621a1.htm

 

Should we hunt whales?

Whaling makes no economic sense

 

By TIM SCOTT

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for shooting whales. Get a

bunch of tourists, put them on boat, send it out to

the North Pacific and let them fire off some rounds

for an hour or two. Of course the ammunition used

would be Kodak and Fuji stock, but it's a lot more

humane than blowing them up. And it doesn't make the

water go all red.

 

With the exception of some Japanese and Scandinavian

fisherman, a few Japanese scientists and the Japanese

government, in the minds of most people -- whale

hunting ranks up there with clubbing baby seals as,

well, kind of nasty.

 

But forget the graphic images, emotion and PC rhetoric

of the anti-whale lobby There is another reason why we

shouldn't be hunting Willy. Simple economics.

 

Whales are more valuable alive than they are dead.

Despite whaling industry claims, today there is little

demand for the bone, blubber, meat, and oil that

whales once supplied. At the same time, however, the

demand for and profitability of whale watching has

increased.

 

Research by scientist and author Erich Hoyt in 1995 on

behalf of the International Fund for Animal Welfare

found considerable growth in the international whale

watching industry. In Japan alone the figure soared

from 55,000 whale watchers in 1994 to more than

100,000 in 1998.

 

He says: " There has been steady growth in whale

watching in Japan and Norway, and the figures show

that it is increasingly economically important to

communities in both countries. "

 

As of 1998 the total value of whale watching in Japan

was estimated to be more than $32.4 million, That's a

lot of people taking photos and spending money on

crappy whale tea towels and calendars.

 

Nearly 30 Japanese coastal communities, from Hokkaido

to Okinawa, are involved in the business and most of

those coming to " Oooh " and " Ahhh " are Japanese.

 

" It is ironic that Japan and Norway, who defy the

international ban on whaling by using loopholes in the

legislation, are now finding that whales might be

worth more alive than dead, " says Karen Steuer, of Commercial Exploitation and Trade at the

International Fund for Animal Welfare.

 

The benefits of eco-tourism activities such as whale

watching are spread over a larger portion of the

population than whale hunting; in addition to

whale-watching operations, those operating stores,

hotels and restaurants can enjoy increased employment

and revenue opportunities. The Japanese whaling

industry employs only a few hundred people.

 

So why does Tokyo continue to push a defiantly

pro-whaling stance that brings it international

condemnation and conflicts with its more cooperative

and progressive position on other environmental

matters?

 

Arrogance? Perhaps. It continues to avoid the 1986

International Whaling Commission (IWC) worldwide

moratorium on whaling by hunting whales in both the

Antarctic and the North Pacific, claiming that these

whales must be killed to answer critical management

questions.

 

But what of the repeated claims that there just isn't

enough whale meat available down at your local sushi

joint?

 

Frank Cipriano, a professor at San Francisco State

University, reported in June 2003 that a DNA analysis

of Japanese pet foods purchased by the Environmental

Investigation Agency from supermarkets in Shizuoka and

Otsuchi, near Tokyo, found the dog chow mixed with

Antarctic minke whale and dolphin meat.

 

That find would seem to undermine Tokyo's claim that

it needs more whale meat -- unless it's for its

chihuahuas.

 

Japanese authorities often claim that the anti-whaling

movement (the West) is trying to destroy a Japanese

tradition that stretches back unbroken over millennia.

 

 

But while they would have us believe that whaling is

as Japanese as sumo, baseball and getting inebriated

at Friday night work drinks, it seems the public is

rather indifferent on the subject.

 

Only 11 percent of people surveyed in 2000 said that

they supported Japanese whaling; nearly two-thirds had

not eaten whale meat since childhood; and over half

opposed whaling or said that they had no view either

way.

 

Subsequent polls in 2001 vindicate these findings.

While some might try to convince us that the people of

Japan are united in their desire to eat whales, it's

more a case of " Whaling? Whatever. "

 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20050621a2.htm

 

Should we hunt whales?

Hunting of whales is a necessary evil

 

By MELANIE BURTON

 

The pro-whaling position anguishes those nations that

resent Japan's apparent cruelty.

 

But believe it or not -- like it or not -- Japan's

case for the resumption of commercial whaling is

strong enough to have IWC nations reconsidering their

positions. Change is unlikely to occur this year, due

to the two-thirds majority required to effect it, but

it's on the horizon.

 

According to the whaling convention (ICRW), Japan's

catches are legal, and technically, as no profit is

made from the sale of whale meat, not commercial --

check Article VIII. But is it just a loophole ripe for

exploitation?

 

The driving force behind the 1982 whaling moratorium

was that data on whales like age and reproductive

rates was difficult to gather. " The research catch by

Japan was launched to answer such questions, " says The

Japan Whaling Association.

 

To determine how fast a specific population grows, its

sexual maturity, rate of reproduction and life span

among other things, must be tested.

 

For example, from an Antarctic population of minke

whales asserted by the IWC to be at 760,000 in 1990,

(from an estimated 80,000 a century ago) 440 (0.25

percent) " is the smallest number required to obtain

statistically valid results, " according to the

Institute of Cetacean Research.

 

Contrary to the stance of countries like Australia,

the IWC acknowledges that information pertaining to

age and reproduction cannot be determined without

lethal catches to, for example, analyze ovaries.

 

Why should whales be exempt as a commodity? There are

over a billion people out there who hold a four-legged

animal sacred and Westerners continue to chow down on

Big Macs. If you're prepared to eat beef, why not

whale?

 

One reason why whaling hits the heart of the West is

that during the '70s and '80s, whales became a symbol

of the environment's vulnerability. Think friendship,

Flipper, Free Willy.

 

In Japan too they occupy an important place in the

country's psyche. Masayuki Komatsu, alternate

commissioner for Japan at the IWC, writes about

Japan's whale culture. At Koganji temple in Yamaguchi

Prefecture, the souls of over 1,000 whales are

interred, along with 75 whale fetuses on the top of a

hill, where he says, they can " command a view of their

ocean home. " He goes on to point out, " An approach

where the Japanese accord the whale (the) status of a

person because of its integral role in sustaining

human life can clearly be contrasted with the view of

cattle in the West, where no such status or respect is

conferred. "

 

Although Japanese consumed whale as early as 3500

B.C., it didn't reach the plates of commoners until

the Edo period.

 

In 1947, whale constituted about 47 percent of Japan's

protein, according to the ICR. Whale meat had proved a

solution to a country in dire food shortage. This has

left a strong impression on Japanese.

 

While we're on the West and whale culture, let's note

that in the group of countries that decimated the

populations of blue, right and bowhead whales in their

search for oil (remember Moby Dick?), England and

America were present while Japan was not.

 

As the '70s hit with the glory of petrol, the

importance of whaling for those economies waned.

 

Last year 49 percent of Australia's exported beef was

to Japan to the tune of 2 billion Australian dollars.

Economically, exporters aren't interested in a

resumption of whaling.

 

Moreover, the destruction wrought by cattle farming on

the environment ought not to be underestimated. In a

report released last week, the United Nations FAO

estimated that South America's forest will decrease by

18 million hectares by 2010.

 

" Growing demand for animal protein is one of the

driving forces . . . It is urgent that alternatives

are found. "

 

When one beef cow supplies 0.3 tons of meat, and a

minke whale yield equals 12 cattle, potential

environmental benefits become clear.

 

There are health issues too.

 

Whale meat is high in protein and iron and low in

cholesterol. Baleen whales like minkes feed on krill,

and Antarctic krill are devoid of toxins like mercury,

unlike fish caught near cities, and not pumped full of

hormones, as are cattle and chicken. When the world's

forests are being depleted, and half its population

doesn't have enough food, it seems indulgent for

wealthy nations to call whales off limits because

whaling " is no longer required to meet human needs. "

 

The Japan Times: June 21, 2005

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