The Pros And Cons Of Whaling
Whale hunting, or whaling, has been a famed Japanese tradition for numerous years. The industrial whaling the country is known for nowadays was set up just after the Second World War. The Japanese economy ad collapsed and food and resources were scarce. It was no other than General Douglas MacArthur who came up with the idea of commercializing the wale hunt.
The method used by the Japanese until that time were out-dated, the fishermen still used nets and small harpoons. With two military tankers authorized to become whaling ships, Japan soon grew to be the biggest whaling industry in the world. That was until the International Whaling Commission (IWC) put a ban on commercial whaling back in 1986. Whaling for scientific research was the only …show more content…
Whaling has been a Japanese tradition, which goes back to prehistoric times, so Japan has a strong historical connection with the sea as a source of food. But there are other countries that used to have such a connection to the sea as well, for example France and the US. Those countries ‘set sail’ to whaling or limited their whale hunts when the IWC put a ban on commercial whaling back in 1986. So Japan has no traditional reason to keep up the whale hunt. A country cannot, or may not keep up something like this just because it is a tradition.
The Japanese whale hunters also believe that placing a ban on whaling rather than hunting other species is a bit conflicting. For instance, a very important ingredient in Japanese cuisine, Bluefin tuna, is way more endangered than the Minke whales that the Japanese hunt. Also fishermen share the opinion that if whaling is considered cruel, so is the slaughtering of cattle in the factory farming system, which is globally accepted (Zhang, 2015). Still, the main reason why the Japanese hunt whales is the annual yield of
The method used by the Japanese until that time were out-dated, the fishermen still used nets and small harpoons. With two military tankers authorized to become whaling ships, Japan soon grew to be the biggest whaling industry in the world. That was until the International Whaling Commission (IWC) put a ban on commercial whaling back in 1986. Whaling for scientific research was the only …show more content…
Whaling has been a Japanese tradition, which goes back to prehistoric times, so Japan has a strong historical connection with the sea as a source of food. But there are other countries that used to have such a connection to the sea as well, for example France and the US. Those countries ‘set sail’ to whaling or limited their whale hunts when the IWC put a ban on commercial whaling back in 1986. So Japan has no traditional reason to keep up the whale hunt. A country cannot, or may not keep up something like this just because it is a tradition.
The Japanese whale hunters also believe that placing a ban on whaling rather than hunting other species is a bit conflicting. For instance, a very important ingredient in Japanese cuisine, Bluefin tuna, is way more endangered than the Minke whales that the Japanese hunt. Also fishermen share the opinion that if whaling is considered cruel, so is the slaughtering of cattle in the factory farming system, which is globally accepted (Zhang, 2015). Still, the main reason why the Japanese hunt whales is the annual yield of