Is Whaling Humane?

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Recommended: Positive And Negative Impacts Of Whaling

Introduction

Whaling has become a global environmental issue as vast numbers of whales are killed commercially and scientifically every year. Intense debate on the necessity of whaling has been stirred but failed to be resolved due to the lacking of pragmatic measures employed by the responsible parties. Whaling nations continue to defend their whaling right for cultural and research purposes. Yet, ethical and humanity issues are among the controversial disputes raised by concerned public. In February 2010, International Whaling Commission (IWC) proposed a plan of lifting whaling ban by limiting scientific whaling activities with the intention of reducing overall number of whales killed besides solving the current impasse between pro and anti-whaling nations (Yamaguchi 2010). Statistics has revealed that 31,000 whales have been killed for commercial purposes while 12, 000 whales hunted lethally under scientific research since 1986. This leads to a critical extinction faced by Antarctic blue whales and Pacific gray whales (Tinch 2009). After series of negotiations, Japanese government finally decides to compromise by reducing the whale catch quota for annual research hunts with the condition of resuming commercial whaling (Yamaguchi 2010). However, one of the anti-whaling nations, Australia, has voiced out a strong disagreement and planned to take international legal action to cease whaling research (Yamaguchi 2010). Consequently, all the arguments above eventually lead to the investigation question:

“Should whaling ban be lifted?”

The three basic areas of investigation include

• Background of whaling

• Arguments for the lifting of whaling ban

• Arguments against the lifting of whaling ban

Sources in this inves...

... middle of paper ...

...re well preserved in future.

(1996 words)

Works Cited

Morishita J, 2006, Multiple Analysis of the Whaling Issue: Understanding the Dispute by A Matrix, Marine Policy, 30:802-808.

Gales N., 2007, Is Japan’s Whaling Humane?, Marine Policy, doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2007.08.004.

Papastavrou V., 2006, In the Name of Science? A Review of Scientific Whaling, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Bristol, UK, pp1-16.

Tinch R., 2009, Sink or Swim: The Economics of Whaling Today, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), viewed 30 April 2010 .

World Wildlife Fund – International, 2006, Japanese Scientific Whaling: Irresponsible Science, Irresponsible Whaling, World Wildlife Fund – International, Switzerland, viewed 1 June 2010, .

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