Whaling

Kylan Horky

1
 Table of contents
Introduction...................................................................................Pg 3
Where is it happening?.................................................................Pg 3
Why does it happen.......................................................................Pg 4
Social, Economic and Environmental impacts...........................Pg 4
Case Study.....................................................................................Pg 5
Solutions.........................................................................................Pg 5
Conclusion......................................................................................Pg 6
Bibliography...................................................................................Pg 6

Introduction:

2
Whales are the largest animal species in the world with only 10,000 to 25,000 estimated to be
living today. Whales have been hunted down for sport and for commercial reasons at least
4,000 years ago mainly for their meat and for their blubber, a type of oil mainly used in oil
lamps, which were very popular before electricity was invented as there was no other way to
light up a room. Today there are not many counts of whaling as it has been banned by the
international whale commission (IWC) in 1982 to help whale populations recover from
overfishing and hunting in the past centuries however not all countries abide by this rule.
Japan, Norway and Iceland were the three countries that did the most whale hunting and are
the ones brought whaling to light, as well as being the nations that still hunt whales with
Norway and Iceland hunting them for commercial purposes and Japan doing it under the
guise of “research”. The IWC was formed in 1946 as the global body responsible for whaling
and currently has 88 member countries as well as the focus changing from just whaling to
now pollution, debris, ocean noise, and ship strikes.

Where is it happening?
Whaling has happened all around the world but now with the pause in place by the IWC the
countries of the world are not allowed to commercially whale but after many objections
Norway and Iceland are allowed to commercially whale still, but it is under heavy regulation
and watchful eye of the IWC. Japan also
whales still but claim it is for research and
denies any other allegations of it being for
any other reason. As stated previously the
reason for this ban is to help whale
populations recover from whaling in previous
years and as we can see from figure 1.1 a
total of 58 767 whales caught in a time period
of 33 years, which is around 1780 whales
caught each year in that time period just
showing the scale of how many whales
(Figure 1.1 total whales caught by countries from 1985-
2018) were caught
in such a relatively small time period when
you think that whaling has been estimated to
have started around 4000 years ago meaning if on average there were 1780 whales caught
each year for the full 4000 years it would be 7 120 000 whales caught in the 4000 year
period, which is quite a lot as it takes a while for whales to reproduce due to their large size.

3
Why does it happen?
There is really one reason why whaling happens and that is for commercial use and for the
resources they provide blubber oil used as lubricants and oil for oil lamps and of course the
meat that they provide. Figure 1.2
shows all the different ways to cut
the whale and what each cut is
called, much like a cow has different
types of meat depending on the area
of the animal it was taken from a
whale does as well, providing
different tastes of meat, but this
figure also shows the toxicity of each
cut showing that it is (Figure 1.2, Showing
the different cuts of a whale and how toxic each
is) very much over the government limit and could be killing people. The other reason is
because of the oil that is made in the whale’s body, blubber. Whilst blubber is not the main
reason, it still provides a reason why whaling happens, blubber is used in some very ordinary
household items such as soap and margarine (a jam) but also used in some paints and in oil
lamps.

Social, Economic and Environmental impacts

There are many different impacts that happen due to whaling, but the three main ones are the
social, environmental and economic impacts with these impacting everyone and the world.
The main social impact is that the people may become unhappy with the government for
either whaling or not whaling. In Japan the people enjoy eating “dolphin” meat ,with it
actually being whale meat without their knowledge, but also provides the people who actually
hunt the whales a job and enjoyment as it is what they enjoy doing, so if the Japanese
government stop whaling the people may become unhappy as they won’t get their “dolphin”
meat, be out of a job and be stuck with doing something they may not enjoy doing but also
the act of whaling has been in Japanese culture for a long time as well as the Japanese believe
that whales are the manifestation of the god Ebisu, who brings riches from the seas. However
on the flip side of this the people can become unhappy if their government decides to start
whaling as the people may know how the whales are being treated thus go against whaling
and become unhappy. The next impact is the environmental impact. Whales are large
creatures and roam very happily in the sea eating up to 4 tonnes of krill each day and are at
the top of the food chain in many of the marine ecosystems and with human and commercial
impacts removing whales from the marine life harms the ecosystem by removing a large
predator leaving the prey population to grow exponentially destroying the balance between
predator and prey as well as reducing the deep sea biodiversity, whales also a key part in
removing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere removing up to 33 tonnes of carbon through their
lifespan, a live oak tree, one of the most efficient carbon-storing tree species in the world, can
only capture 12 tonnes of carbon in a 500 year gap, a whale can do more than this in a shorter
period showing how important they are for the world. The final impact is the economic
impact of whaling. One of the main reasons that countries hunt down and kill whales is for
the economic reasons, but how does it really stack up? Figure 1.3 shows the Norwegian

4
whale meat values and the subsidies that this whaling group was given from 1994 to 2008
and it really shows that whaling does not provide much to the group with the value of the
meat having decreased quite (Figure 1.3 the value and subsidies from Norwegian Råfisklaget group)
a lot from 2005 to 2006and
there a much more subsidies
than the actual value so
whaling today dies bit
provide much to a countries
economy but in the 1880’s,
the height of whaling,
whaling made $10 million
worldwide in 1880 money, transferred to today’s money, that is $302 million USD
contributed to the GDP back in the 1880’s.

Case Study: Japanese illegal whaling

Japan is one of the major nations in the world in modern time due to their technological
advances and their industry exporting many different items, becoming a key player in the
economy of the pacific even a key part of the IWC. Despite this Japan still hunts and kill
whales under the guise of hunting them for “scientific research” even after the ban by the
IWC in 1986, the Japanese started hunting the whales for “research” in 1987, just one year
after the ban, then much later in 2008 the federal court of Australia deemed the hunting of
whales by Japan illegal, however, the Japanese whaling fleet headed to south without any
prosecution, and then in 2014 both Australia and New Zealand’s governments took the
Japanese government to the International court of justice where the act of whaling in the
southern pacific was deemed illegal, but to this day the Japanese government sends their
whaling fleet down to the southern pacific each Austral summer (Dec-Feb) with both
Australia and New Zealand doing nothing to stop it.

Solutions:
Currently a solution to this problem is in place with the IWC putting a pause on all whaling,
with this pause put in place in 1982 however this has not stopped countries from continuing
to whale as shown in figure 1.4 which shows a
Japanese “research” boat with a killed whale
on deck and whilst the Japanese deny it is for
commercial whaling and purely for research
and thus in compliance with the IWC rules
which state that the hunting and killing of
whales are allowed if it is for marine research,
the Japanese have been killing these whales
and then selling their meats throughout the
country and even sending the whaling fleet
(Figure 1.4 Japanese whaling boat)
down to Australia and New Zealand which was deemed illegal but still continues today and
nothing is being done about it. So whilst a solution is in place, nothing is really being done to
enforce it around the world thus the solution would be that a harsh punishment is handed out
if a government is not complying or their actions are deemed illegal.

5
Conclusion
To conclude this document, whaling is the cruel taking of a creature’s life and it provides no
real benefit to us as humans. Whaling only causes hurt to the environment, as whales take in
lots of carbon, reducing the amount of it that can harm the environment and whilst there is a
solution and the problem appears to be solved, the solution inn place has to enforcement
leading to many people in Japan dying because the pollution in the ocean is taken in by the
whales effectively poisoning the population that eats it. Whaling is a disgusting mark on
humanity and it has to be stopped, and enforced.

Bibliography

Bibliography
Britannica. (n.d.). Regulation. Retrieved from Britannica:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/whaling/Regulation
Chan, W. (n.d.). The Ecological Effects of Whaling. Retrieved from The Ecological
Effects of Whaling: https://www.esi.utexas.edu/files/045-Learning-Module-
Effects-Whaling.pdf
Dr rob tinch, Z. p. (2009, June). Sink or Swim the economics of Whaling today.
Retrieved from WWF:
https://wwfeu.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/economics_whaling_summ_
report_final.pdf
IWC. (n.d.). IWC. Retrieved from IWC: https://iwc.int/en/
Japan Heritage living with Whales. (n.d.). Japan heritage story. Retrieved from
Japan Heritage Living With Whales:
https://kumanonada-nihonisan.jp/en/story/#:~:text=In%20ancient
%20times%2C%20the%20Japanese,as%20a%20means%20of
%20livelihood
National geographic. (n.d.). Blubber. Retrieved from National Geographic:
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/blubber/
Science media museum . (2022, Febuary 10). A history of whaling . Retrieved
from Science Media Museum:
https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/history-
whaling#:~:text=from%20the%20archive.-,Ancient%20whaling,period
%2C%2013000–300%20BCE
Sea Shepherd. (n.d.). Whale Defence Campaign. Retrieved from Sea Shepherd:
https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/our-campaigns/whale-defense-
campaign/
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Whaling in Japan. Retrieved from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Japan
WWF. (n.d.). Whales. Retrieved from WWF:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/whale

6
7