Hunting for Whales: Outdated Practice

Whales have been around on Earth for many years. One thing that originated due to the population of the speices is whaling. Whaling is the act of hunting for whales whether in the need for food, for scientific research, or for commercial reasons. It was not until the 1920’s when the concern for the decrease in whale population was brought to light by the Director of the British Museum, Sidney Harmer (Hoare, 2014). The sudden awareness for the number of whales brought on the “Save the Whales” title, which was used in 1924. By 1930, the League of Nations started to focus on the problem at hand. The focus that was put on the whaling population, brought on many organizations that tried to assist in the regrowth of the whale species. Organizations such as The international Whaling Commission (IWC) and The World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) attempt to lower the numbers of whalers by either connecting to them through their heartstrings or by putting limits onto how many whales the hunters are allowed to bring in (Hoare, 2014)(WWF, N.d). The IWC called for a “pause” referd to as moratorium on whaling in 1986 (WWF, N.d).

Whaling is not practiced everywhere. Whaling is an act that is most common in places like Japan, Iceland, Canada, Russia, and the Netherlands. The WWF is against commercial whaling, but there is an allowed amount of whales that a country can kill if it is for scientific research. Japan and Iceland are the only two countries that hunt whales for this reasoning; Japan having done so since 1987 (WWF, N.d). One man wrote while on a whaling voyage that,“…it seems [Japan] has a deep need to experiment on the tastiness of whale meat…” when he discovered that even though it was supposed to be for scientific research, whale meat was...

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