Japanese Whaling

Japanese whaling sounds more like a tradition rather than a need. It has almost been a habit and a promising occupation in Taiji, Japan.  They even have private places where they secretly kill dolphins and whales every day.

In the meeting of International Whaling Commission (IWC), Japan came up with some specific reasons which encourage them to keep the whaling activities against the opposite countries. From some historical evidence, Japanese have been consuming whales since long time ago. Yet, it may not be the only one reason why Japanese keep whaling.  Economically, whaling provides large number of employment in some parts of Japan. They are paid $15,000 for living whales and $600 for dead whales. The living whales are distributed to theme parks while the dead whales are sold to the market and school’s canteens.

Biologically, the government believes that killing the whales and dolphins is the best way to do the pest control. According to the government, whales and dolphins eat smaller fishes so that it decreases the fishermen’s catch.

On the other hand, other countries do not take whaling as the righteous thing. Firstly, as a compliance of food, whales and dolphins are actually forbidden because it can contain large number of mercury. Several cases about the mercury effect have been exposed. One of the most popular cases is called “Minamata Disease”.

Secondly, whaling as the effort of pest control might not be the best way since the biological cycles should be done naturally. When thousands of whales are killed, the life cycles are slightly disturbed daily and become unbalance over the time.

Finally, even though the Japanese have improved their whaling method, the result is still the same. The population of whales and dolphins are still decreasing, the balance of biomes is disturbed, and the level of mercury contamination is increasing.

I think all those consequences above should not be happening. That is why, people, especially the government should be more aware about making a policy related to the nature’s activities.

 (The report about Japanese Whaling issues-Recorded by CNN)