Commercial Whale Hunting - Yes or No?
Friday February 15, 2008
Right now, quite a few Icelanders see the negative global reaction to whaling as cause for concern and are no longer in favor of commercial whale hunts.
There has been a lot of talk about Iceland's position on whale hunting in the past year or so. Iceland has consistently rejected international efforts to conserve whales, and its "scientific" whaling was widely criticized as commercial whaling in disguise.
But forget the politics. I'd like to ask you instead: Are you in favor of it, or are you against commercial whaling? What is your opinion? Post your comments!
Also read this related article: Whale Watching in Scandinavia
Comments
i think they should stop hunting whales, unless it’s for food. no more whaling experiments in iceland. they’ll kill them until whales are extinct, too.
I don’t have a problem with whaling. But the authorities in those areas should limit or regulate the hunting.
Thank you for the interesting articles, I enjoy the site. HD.
Whaling is courting Worldwide condemnation and Iceland will commence at its peril. As a person involved in senior management in the tourism sector I can say that the backlash is starting and I would have to say both my colleagues & I are consciously identifying the nations wrecking this planet and making them pay dearly.
Already several major Japanese industries are indicating serious unease and the recent photos taken by the Australian Government in Antarctica have aroused a public backlash.
It’s time to have the courage to say certain things are totally unacceptable!
When it is needed as food-source AND the killing methods get “humanly” there could be a talk about whaling. But the whale-population is killed only in a few areas, so that the gene pool is getting smaller and smaller by killing the whales. The ocean life is very complex and we should let the nature a few decades to regenerate. We can’t test it by extinction. Let the whales, seals and also fish have a chance. But thats utopia thinking I know. As long there will be possibilitys to make profits with that, there will be slaugter of animals.
Best regards
Thomas Buiter
http://www.free-blog.in/migaloo/
PS: I´m a vegtarian so don’t tell me something about killing cows or pigs
It is time to establish a world wide whale sanctuary. I have seen whales in the Pacific and it is one most special things I have experienced in my life. Whales are beautiful animals and we should do everything we can to ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy these fantastic creatures.
Please sign the anti whaling petition on www.whalesrevenge.com if you agree with me
Whaling, was, is and will always be, an abomination, there is not one person on this earth that will die if they do not kill a whale to eat. Whales have not recovered to their pre commercial whaling number. Whales such as the right whale and the fin whale are so low in numbers that their population’s gene pool so is so small these whales will probably becomes extinct. The whales and other marine animals should be left in peace. We as humans have allowed our selves to breed out of control, and in doing so have stripped the seas of their inhabitants, robbed the land of its wildlife. What we seem to be unable to understand is that when the last whale is dead, the last fowl shot from the sky, the last wild animal taken its last breath we the whole of the human race will then find our own hell. The Japanese are murdering in the name of science, when best practice in science is to observe the subject in its natural environment behaving normally, then move on leaving the subject for others to observe. It is time for the human race to take responsibility for its actions, the Japanese, Norwegian and aboriginal hunting countries are just the tip of the harpoon that is about to explode in our own faces.
Thank you all, for your thoughtful comments on this subject. I truly appreciate your input and opinions, and I do hope that if enough people speak up about whaling, a difference can be made.
Having visited Iceland several times I have to say that the Icelanders I meet are a wonderful people, but the issue of whaling does hang around their shoulders holding them back. Iceland is moving forward as the ‘green’ nation of the north. If Iceland consigns whaling to history and continues to develop whale watching as its future then it will attract more tourists. Lets hope for a whaling-free future for Iceland
I read this poem on the Internet written by A. Viirlaid of Toronto. It made me think there has to be a better way for us to coexist with other life on our planet Earth. My reaction follows after the poem.
Mother Whale’s Lament
I cry for our shared grace
I cry for your human family
I cry for your whaler’s family
I cry for my family
I cry for me
With your warm hand you could stroke my skin like so many of your family have chosen to do
You would feel my warmth and gratitude
Why do you touch me only with your cold harpoon as you thrust it into my flesh?
I thought after so much killing that we would both crave harmony
That we had learned that we both feel and love
That we both treasure life
That we revere our comrades
That we embrace our children
That we share the same blood of our ancestors
That our hearts both beat the rhyme of life
How my child will cling to me as you haul my dying carcass out of the sea
How she will cry
Until you kill her too
A. Viirlaid, Toronto
Nature and Paradox in the Human Condition
I believe this whale hunt is utterly unnecessary, mindlessly cruel, deeply hypocritical, and an activity not worthy of modern humankind nor especially of the Japanese people who are a culturally and economically advanced people.
The Japanese of today are not the same people as those who scraped a living out of the wilderness during the Stone Age. They are not starving. They do not today live in a disadvantaged situation when compared to the many poor peoples of other nations.
So there is little substance in any nutritional argument for killing whales. There is even less in the cultural argument. Also one cannot justify the current killing with the “scientific study” argument — it is easier to prove that guns and tasers don’t kill people, than to try and prove that we have to kill whales in order to study them.
Cultures and people move forward. They advance. Values and our common cultural mentalities progress. Hopefully our humanity strengthens. And customs evolve. These things are not frozen in time. Like an individual who occasionally manifests irrationality, societies too can be unbalanced in some of their customs or practices. They can both mature and grow beyond the behaviors that indicate an alienation from their true long-term natures.
Retaining worthwhile and revered ancient customs is praiseworthy. But, for illustration, if the Japanese of ancient times, and sometimes not so ancient times, never took prisoners alive during wartime because of the prevailing Japanese Samurai “culture”, does that mean that such a particular practice is something to be retained with pride today? Using the modern sword (剣) against defenseless whales is equally dishonorable.
Any appeal to ancient customs is thus especially absurd in the whale hunt discussion. Did the Japanese in ancient times use steel-hulled ships to journey to Antarctica to hunt with steel harpoons and explosives for whales?
Can we condone what is being done by any of the arguments presented so far? This is all doublespeak. These arguments are not even up to the pathetic standards of crooked politicians who lie when trying to justify their corrupt behavior.
If tribal customs for aboriginal peoples in some parts of the world are used to appeal for the allowance of hunting or fishing of protected species out of season then it is true, the local lawmakers will often grant exceptions in such cases. But these should only be granted if the indigenous peoples are willing to use their forebears’ (先祖) ancient technologies. That would protect the species in question since ancient methods are much less likely to have the mass killing effect of our modern methods. More importantly it would give true meaning to the phrase “retention of valued ancient customs”.
How much more profound would it be for a young man coming of age to perform an ancient rite or ritual with the ancient methods, like fishing with spears rather than with drift nets 100 km in length? With the introduction of a highly sophisticated technology, ancient customs can — in this new and different context — assume a completely new and different nature and hence become unjustifiable on the basis of any appeal to “tradition”.
The right to carry forward with a tradition implies that the traditional methodology, as much as practical, should be used — naturally with the provision that if the ancient method involved taking your enemy’s head off, then we abstain from that part of the tradition with the understanding that we have moved forward from that point in our common development.
Our purpose today should be to protect and serve life. Whereas our primordial instinct for self-preservation through the ‘harvesting’ of animal life served us well and allowed us to survive as a species, that same instinct is no longer appropriate — it does us a disservice. It takes our identity away from us. It can today jeopardize our primary motivation for living, the celebration of life itself.
Henry David Thoreau wrote “In wildness is the preservation of the world”. Today that wildness preserves us more than ever. But we don’t serve it nor does it preserve us by our ‘harvesting’ of the great whales. The wilderness preserves us through our conservation of those great creatures and through our preservation of their environment.
Those Japanese and Norwegians who actively hunt whales may delude themselves into thinking that they are in touch with the past, with their primordial selves. But what they are in touch with is what all of our forebears (先祖) were compelled to do in order to survive. But precisely because such activities are no longer germane to our survival, they needlessly alienate us from our potential — our true loving human character. Early humans had no choice — we do.
Today when so-called primitive tribes hunt for food, they invariably practice a form of prayer and a showing of gratitude to Nature for the gift they have just received. There is an inherent paradox they recognize explicitly. And they must atone for the taking of Nature’s gift of life in order to keep themselves psychologically whole. Otherwise they would have to coexist with unacknowledged hypocrisy.
They have extinguished the lives of others. They have killed to preserve and ensure their own continuance. Without the proper atonement and acknowledgement of the wrong that has been done, they risk becoming mentally unwhole and eventually physically unwell. But when was the last time you saw a whaler give thanks to God or more to the point to the whale whose vibrant life he has just ended?
The Japanese (and the Norwegians) and their compatriots in other nations are worthy of something more sublime than the needless slaughter of their fellow mammals in the oceans. These nations prove this every day in all of their other activities. Why not do the same with a permanent cessation of whaling?
We don’t own the whales. They were born free. We did not raise them for food. We have no more right to organize in societal groups to hunt them down with modern technology than they would have that right to organize and hunt us. Because we can do so is not sufficient reason for so doing.
As far as our concern for our fellow humans, there is no contradiction in helping helpless animals as well as helping our fellow humans who are in need or in danger. There is no mutual exclusivity in pursuing both such noble activities. Admirably, both Japan and Norway give very generously to foreign aid. We as individuals should similarly respect all life.
Even if we raise life on the farm for eventual human consumption it should be done with care and respect for those creatures we raise. There is sacredness in all life, even most especially our own, which it is true, we do not always recognize. When we mistreat so-called animal life we are not respecting their sacredness or our own. By so doing, we diminish ourselves and disavow our own sacred nature.
The respect for every human and animal life is an essential precondition if worthwhile societal life is to ever be possible for all of us in our Home Earth. When our collective conscience loses respect for Life as something incredibly sacred, and as something worthy of all of our protection, we inevitably end by disunifying our own identities and repudiating our own most basic reason for living.
ILLEGAL whaling will never be “commercial” again. Whales are highly intelligent.
And they are doing ILLEGAL whaling. They’re just hiding behind so-called “science”. That’s a fact.
I believe whaling should stop - worldwide and at the same time I would like people to stop killing people and all acts of violence to end….
I realize that there are many problems in the world, however, whaling is simple to stop.
I just recently moved to Reykjavik, Iceland and I thought it had stopped but I am learning first hand that it has not stopped. It saddens me.
I belive that it is utterly disgracefull whaling, why should we be alowd sluaghther whales when it is unnecssary? I know that Iceland’s excuse is totally out of proportionn. This is just a way to somwhow justify the immoral tethics of whaling! This 2008 ppl when will u realize the importance of keeping animals perserved and not leading them to extinction with ur bareric and unecssary killing sprees! plz plz plz understand that we need to help animals and we need to perserve them not exploit them with dirty political tricks and stupid facts of why they should be killed unless it is necssary and prudent we kill whales there is noo need to! We should be ashamed of ourselves and iceland’s tourisum and overall reputation wil be affected by this issue if they can not justify such stupidity
I Dont Like Whale Hunting,
Im Against It (:
I Am Also a Vegetarian (:
i also believe whaling should stop but has anyone thought about the effects that could have on other areas of the world???
if commercial whale hunting draws to a stop then the oil we use and recieve from a whale will have to be harvested somewhere else,
this will be from the palm oil plantations replacing the beautifully rich rainforest.
this is also killing not one sub-species of animals but literally a eco-system full of them.
before you jump to a conclusion about whaling please stop and think about the other consequences it may lead to!!!
whaling is so cruel i am well agaist it, it shudnt be allowed
xxx
WHY do people whale hunt it is pointless and cruel STOP IT NOW!
TO ALL WHALE HUNTERS!!!LISTEN UP LOSERS
YOU GUYS NEED TO STOP HUNTING WHALES!!!
THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES WHO MAKE OUR WORLD A BETTER PLACE.YOU GUYS ARE DOING ACTS OF EVIL!!!NONE OF US LIKE IT!!!YOU MAY THINK IT’S COOL AND FAIR.BUT,IT’S STUPID AND YOU GUYS ARE DUMBER THAN DIRT!!!IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE,HELP WHALES INSTEAD OF HURTING THEM ALRIGHT!
WE ARE BEYOND MAD ABOUT THIS SUBJECT!!!SO STOP
YOU GUYS WILL FACE THE CONSEQUENCES LATER ON.
SHOW THE GOOD THAT’S INSIDE OF YOU!!
WHALE HUNTING ISN’T GOOD!!
IT’S HARMING WILDLIFE!!
I SUPPORT WHALES!!!!!THEY ROCK!!!!:)