So let the Japanese hunt whales!

Here is a good review of the whaling issue and Japan, although I was a disappointed that the "scientific evidence" was not discussed either for or against whaling.

From an environmental viewpoint this really doesn't seem like it should be a problem. Whales are like any other animal that we exploit, and so there should be some empirically-based management policy people can agree on. I cannot image that such a policy would completely ban whaling - which is precisely what most European countries, the US, New Zealand and Australia want. How much of this is driven by emotional sympathy for the beloved cetaceans is unclear, but I am sure that in-your-face environmentalists like Greenpeace are happy to exploit those feelings. Japan, Iceland, and Norway, on the other hand, want the ban on whaling to be lifted (they are all taking whales anyway, the Japanese claim it is for scientific research) and say that they have plans for sustainable whaling and only hunting non-endangered species.

In Japan at least, the whaling industry has withered to a fraction of what it used to be. Whale meat is not popular anymore and the industry if cut from its government subsidies would not survive. The pro-whaling stance in Japan is not at all about the need for food. It is about national pride and taking a stance against non-whaling countries that have denounced Japan as barbarous and the heritage of whaling as evil. Even though I know the US beef industry is horribly unsustainable and inhumane, I too would be pissed off if India tried to force us to stop eating cows because it was immoral (to them). So the reaction in Japan is complicated by emotions too.

Why not lift the ban, make the whaling nations hunt under a sustainable protocol that has been agreed upon by the International Whaling Commission, put in place a monitoring system, and pressure whaling governments to end taxpayer subsidization of the industry?


A side note - the fight over whales is one more ominous sign of the stress that human populations are placing on natural marine resources that cannot be farmed or harvested. Today it may be whales, and Chilean sea bass, but tomorrow it will be mackerel and tuna.