Thank you Whalerider for bringing up some very important views on whaling. It seems that Japan is not very receptive to environmental or humane aspects of whale killing preferring instead to defend itself by saying it's no different to killing cows etc. However it is different in significant ways. Where to start? So many issues:-
a) Cruelty. There is no humane way to kill a whale. It is so huge. with cows you can stun them with captive bolt and hopefully they lose consciousness while you kill them. No such possibility with a whale. They are shot with an exploding penthrite harpoon which is designed to kill by trauma or laceration. Once embedded in the whale (some go straight through) it explodes and sends shock waves to the brain. The whale is still alive often while being dragged by the rope attached to the harpoon to the factory ship. If it is not moving it is determined to be dead (though in fact it could be paralysed or in shock and still alive) and carved up. If it is moving many hundreds of bullet rounds are fired into it. Japan favours using electrocution in addition, which is very cruel. In addition, members of its family suffer emotional loss and this has been documented.
b) Whale populations have not recovered from the advent of commercial whaling 200 years ago. In fact, according to Professor Stephen Palumbo's groundbreaking genetic research, we have underestimated former whale populations by a factor of 6-20. In order to "sustainably" whale, whales should be at 50% of former numbers. At present they are only at 1% of former populations which means no whaling should be allowed by any nation whatsoever. possibly ever again.
Isanatori is correct in saying there are other factors threatening whales' survival - such as noise pollution (increased ship traffic, seismic and military sonar), chemical pollution (bioaccumulation of organochlorines and pesticides which is affecting calf mortality, endocrine and immune systems, liver etc), entanglement in fishing nets (1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die every day this way), habitat loss and global warming. Because the ozone layer is increasing this is allowing UVB radiation into the atmosphere which inhibits photosynthesis in phytoplankton and kills some zooplankton leading to skin cancer and blindness in cetaceans and more importantly drastic decline in krill numbers - their food supply.
However, Japan is contributing to these problems too by overfishing. Japan has 1/5th of the world's population and kills 1/3 of the world's fish. So the questions begs to be asked - are whales the greedy ones? After all they have been here in much greater numbers living in harmony with all in their ecosystems, contributing by way of their vase plumes of excrement with fertilize plankton, the bottom of the food chain that everything in the ocean depends on. They give back. Japan just keeps fishing as if there will always be fish. Now the oceans are so seriously overfished, isn't it time people of the world started realising it's time to stop eating fish lest they all perish?
c) Environmental. If we remove the top feedeers in the ocean's ecosystem it will have dire consequences for the rest of the ocean. Already the oceans are in a state of collapse. We have overfished the ocean and it is dying. If it dies completely, we will die also because we depend on a healthy ocean to supply us with 70-80% of the oxygen we breathe. So with every whale and dolphin, shark and seal we kill, we are killing the earth, killing ourselves.
So you see, Isanatori, the best management of whales is to stop killing them. Japan has totally incorrect numbers.
d) Whale blubber is carcinogenic. This has already been determined by the Norwegian government who tells its citizens not to eat too much - instead preferring to sell whale blubber to Japan. Japan doesn't seem to mind giving cancer-causing meat to its citizens - or even its school children for that matter!
e) International good relations. Australia is one of the #1 anti-whaling nations in the world. Japan is illegally killing our minke whales in Australian territorial waters in Antarctica and plans to double that number and include our humpback whales. Just so you know, Australian people love humpback whales and 1.5 million flock to whale watching every year to gasp in awe and wonder at these magestic creatures. Many on those boats are Japanese tourists who ooh and aah along with us then go home to eat whales in expensive restaurants. This is creating a lot of bad feeling on the part of Australians to Japan and I wouldn't be surprised if Australians start a nation-wide boycott of Japanese goods and travel if our Prime Minister does not take Japan to court for trespassing in our waters. And if Japan starts to kill humpback whales which are endangered then it will be getting into very deep water indeed.
Japan has made itself very unpopular with the IWC because it is using a loophole in "scientific" whaling to kill whales for commercial purposes. It is not necessary to kill a whale to determine its age just so quotas can be set. The IWC is continuously censuring Japan over this and demanding it use non-lethal methods like the other countries. So you see Japan is not very popular in the world arena for the irresponsible and selfish way it is killing whales which belong to the oceans not to them. So far not one shred of evidence of anything valuable has been contributed by Japan to the scientific knowledge of whales through it's so-called "scientific" whaling program.
f) Strandings. Whales rely on sonar to navigate and this is thought to be drowned out by military sonar so the whales surface too quickly and suffer from decompression. Mass strandings of whales have been increasing around the world and there is growing evidence that modern military sonar (detecting ultra-quiet submarines) is responsible. Keep in mind a single ping lasts 60-100 seconds and reaches up to 235 decibels. Again, another threat to whale survival. We don't need whaling nations to add to this! In the last 20 years of the commercial moratorium on whaling, Japan, Norway and Iceland have killed 25,000 whales.
In conclusion, just because Japan has whaled for centuries does not mean it should continue. For centuries, womens' feet were bound so they would be small due to tradition. It is time for Japan, Norway and Iceland to come into the 21st Century and stop all whaling!
I have stated my case and I hope that Japanese people wake up to the urgency of this issue and stop demanding to eat cetaceans (whale and dolphin meat). Instead, cultivate whale-watching as an industry - before it's too late.
