Whaling In Japan Research Paper

Long ago, native tribes, from many places in the world, depended largely on whales for protein in their diets. They were also able to use much of the whale for oil, thus began a tradition of whaling. The first documented whaling expedition occurred in South Korea

In 1946 a group of 15 nations gathered together to sign a treaty aimed at conserving the whale population following their strong concern regarding the over-hunting of whales. The treaty led to the creation of an oversight body known as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that was created under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The Convention is intended to allow for the proper conservation of whale stocks and make the established development of the whaling

The parties involved in this matter are the members of the tribe, both for and against the decision, the whales, the environmentalists, the courts that will settle the lawsuits and future generations that might be affected by any decision in regards to the impact on the whales sustainability. The decision at stake here is whether it is moral to revoke the ban and recent tradition,

Did you know that roughly three million whales were slaughtered in the twentieth century alone? Or that there are only around four hundred North Atlantic right whales alive today because they never fully recovered from being hunted? These whales are known as “right” whales because they are large and slow, with thick blubber that yields lots of oil plus they remain afloat after they've been killed, this simplifies the whole hunting process for everyone . Furthermore, the hunters got more money for less work. I believe that whaling is a vile and pointless thing to do to such beautiful creatures and that the International Whaling Commission should look further into the use of whales for research.

A committee from an organization such as the WTO may be a good starting point for deciding who should participate in the negotiations for promoting the whale ban. Because an issue this complex and involved needs to have negotiations on who will be participating in the negotiations. The villagers are much more limited on the resources they have for such negotiations. It is fortunate that the nations of Norway and Japan appear to be aligned with the villagers so that additional resources are there to promote the values of that culture. And since the impact of the whaling ban is so large on these local cultures, the negotiating parameters should be weighted to their side in some manner to prevent a large number of people with little to lose out-weighing the small number of people who have everything to lose. But keep in mind, these weights cannot be determined without accurate (unbiased) and timely data on the impact to the environment and the

Did you know that in the last 50 years over two million whales have been killed? The United States views whaling very differently than Japan does. It is a complicated and controversial topic. Many people have opinions about whale hunting. However, everyone should know both sides of the whale hunting issues before they act on the issue. To start out I am going to tell you a little about whaling. The first whale hunters were in the prehistoric times. At first they would just kill and eat beached whales. That became such a habit that they started hunting them. Most whale hunters use harpoons, guns, lances, or bombs that blow up inside the whale. They use catcher boats, or kayaks. In 1925, whalers developed

When the commercial whaling was prohibited in 1986, Australia has formed a major anti-whaling campaign, which is well known as the sea shepherd. Sea shepherd’s job was going out to the sea and use action to defend the whales from getting hunted by the Japanese. Australia’s anti-whaling action tells people around the world of the serious situation about whaling. Our action leads people to start paying attention to the consequences of not stop the whaling. In 2010 Australia has been initiated legal action to proceeding against the Japanese, intention to end the scientific whaling in the southern ocean.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was created in 1972, because of the growing concern from scientists and the general public about certain species of marine mammals becoming extinct, due to human activity. The primary objective of this act in 1972 was to maintain the health and stability of the marine ecosystem. When this objective was fulfilled the next focus would be to maintain the ideal population of each species. As you can tell from the graph below there has been a substantial decrease in the percent of maximum population in certain marine mammals.

When whaling was first started in America it was because the Basques had started hunting and trading products made from whales. First it was the Dutch that had followed them in their whaling and then the British followed them. Finally, America followed the British and soon the huge expedition had started to hunt whales for the oil inside them.

Whale hunting is a very controversial issue. Some argue that it is morally wrong to hunt an animal with such a high level of intelligence, some argue that whales shouldn’t be hunting due to their dwindling numbers and their risk for extinction, and others argue that it is the only means of food for some indigenous people who have been hunting whales for centuries. I personally, am against commercial whaling, but do understand the IWC’s (International Whaling Commission) catch limits for aboriginal subsistence whaling.

This does not apply, however, in case of the so-called moratorium on whaling for commercial purposes, contained in paragraph 10(e) of the Schedule not being lifted within a reasonable time after the completion of the RMS. Under no circumstances will whaling for commercial purposes be authorised without a sound scientific basis and an effective management and enforcement scheme”

Despite claiming the slaughter is needed to learn more about whales, Japan has not offered any new worthwhile information about whales, with the exception that they eat large quantities of krill (Zelko, 2013, p. A. 13) . Japan has been using this excuse, among many others, since 1986. In the decades Japan has used this excuse, it seems almost ridiculous that Japan has not learned anything new about the mammals’ breeding, migratory, or any other habits. When Australia took Japan to the International Court of Justice to challenge the validity of Japan’s scientific whaling industry, Australia’s agent to the court, Bill Campbell, stated, “Japan seeks to cloak its ongoing commercial whaling in the lab coat of science.” He later told journalists: “You don’t kill 935 whales a year to conduct scientific research. You don’t even need to kill one whale to conduct scientific research” (McCurry, 2013) .

Aboriginal peoples have been whaling as a tradition for thousands of years with it being a significant part of their culture. They have depended on whales for food, clothing and other handicrafts. Whaling was key to survival and the Natives have honored the sacrifice of each whale through spiritual rituals and ceremonies. It gives them a purpose and discipline which benefits their whole community. This has not been a problem for many centuries, only recently have animal activists been trying to stop the hunting of whales. The Makah people have been the main subjects to the opposition of whaling on the basis that it is unnecessary for their culture or their survival. This has been an ongoing issue since 1999, when they harvested their first whale in 70 years. The violent backlash received has prevented them from gaining permission to hunt after that which led to the illegal killing of a whale in 2007. To present day, the Makah has gotten many undeserved death threats and bomb threats to schools. Many complaints have been made that the hunting method differs from how it was done traditionally so the hunting cannot be considered as one of their cultural practices. By denying the Makah cultural rights, this controversy could lead to cultural genocide. The Makah people should be allowed to harvest a total of 24 whales in 6-year period with two hunting seasons of 3 weeks each because it is the main factor in preserving their culture, it will not cause the gray whale population to

In 1946 the newly formed International Whaling Commission enacted a global moratorium on commercial whaling (Robbins). The IWC was formed in hopes of protecting whales and making sure that whales were spared. Without enforcement of the rules and restrictions for any nations, the problem has not gone away. Without whales the ecosystem begins to falter, the whale being one of the vital producers, and consumers of the ocean. There are countries that refused to agree to the terms of the moratorium, regardless of the damage such actions would cause. The moratorium permits whaling for scientific research, and that is the mask current whaling countries hide behind (Zelko). They argue that they are not violating any restrictions, because Article 8 of the 1946 moratorium states that whaling for scientific research is not part of the agreement (McCurry). During the 1970’s people began to care about the whales that were being killed faster than they could reproduce (Robbins). In 1986 whaling was officially banned, some nations ignored the ban, and still do. In 1993, meat DNA tested at a fish market in Japan showed that whale meat was clearly being sold, but there were no consequences. The ban made by the IWC is not

Whaling has become a global environmental issue as vast numbers of whales are killed commercially and scientifically every year. Intense debate on the necessity of whaling has been stirred but failed to be resolved due to the lacking of pragmatic measures employed by the responsible parties. Whaling nations continue to defend their whaling right for cultural and research purposes. Yet, ethical and humanity issues are among the controversial disputes raised by concerned public. In February 2010, International Whaling Commission (IWC) proposed a plan of lifting whaling ban by limiting scientific whaling activities with the intention of reducing overall number of whales killed besides solving the current impasse between pro