The countries that are whaling to present date are: Iceland, Japan and Norway. There are 3 whaling nations left, but still there are whaling happening by native tribes else where. Canada (Nunavut), Denmark (Faroe Islands and Greenland), Indonesia (Lamalera), Russia (The Navy), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Bequia) and United States (Alaska).
I will not use Nunavut, Greenland, Lamalera, Bequia or Alaska as exemples because their quotas are below 100 and they do it because of survival. All though it is sad and inhumane it does not threaten the species.
But I mention the rest of them and what they are about.
Russia
This nation say they are regulating the Gray Whale population. The truth is that they are hunting them for oil. One thing they use it for is for missiles. So they are killing sperm whales for the purpose of making weapons for mass distraction on human beings! Their quotas are 140 each year. This has nothing to do with culture, survival or science.
Norway
The Norwegians has been whaling since the Viking age. Despite the Moratorium on commercial whaling (IWC) made it illegal to hunt whales worldwide, the Norwegian whalers stated that "This is a tradition and if we don't kill them, there will not be any fish left." Since Norway did not sign the moratorium, they get away in a gray area. It is illegal Worldwide, but not in Norway. Sounds strange right?
Truth be told, Mike Whales eats krill. If the fish disappears, it's because of us, not the whales.
Next statement is Culture. This "culture" is old. Other old Norwegia cultures: Make war between other tribes, going to Britain and Ireland to kill, steal, rape, destroy and capture slaves.
Whaling today is done by an exploding harpoon. It causes blast damage and the whale can swim in its own blood up to 2 hours until it dies. This has been documented in the video on this tab. A Norwegian whaler went to Indonesia to make the whaling more humane, it was not successful. The Indonesian are good at following orders, the problem is that the method is not humane.
Japan
This has been for sometime, but the modern whaling in Japan started after World War.II
Japan signed the Moratorium, but they say they are whaling for "Scientific Research" which is legal, still they target 935 Minke Whales, 50 Fin and Humpback Whales. In the Antarctic. Fin Whales and Humpback whales are endangered. In the International court in the Haag. The Verdict said: The whaling program JARPA.II by Setation Reserch is illegal. Still they intend to go back. to the Antarctic International Whale Sanctuary to hunt whales.
The Whaling technique that the Norwegians use was made by Japan and is the one they use today. Sea Shepherd had made the best footage of this method in action from their helicopter.
It was harpooned and shot by a rifle until it died.
The Japanese has also a smaller whaling program closer to Japan. This is much smaller but still not acceptable. The same methods are used there as well.
Yet another hunt happens in the Village of Taiji. This place has a Dolphin massacre. They drive boats out to take in inteere pod of Dolphins, drive them into a Cove and stab them to death. This is done by stabbing them and they collect young females to sell to aquariums where they are going to stay rest of their lives. The Dolphins captured are being drugged down to stay calm so they don't die of stress or anxiety.
The kill was documented by Ric O'Barry in the documentary The Cove. This is still going on. Many Japanese react in anger in two different ways, one like you might expect: Is this happening??!! The other: No one tell Japan what to do!
Iceland
This whaling is done the same way as the Norwegian with the exception that they target Endangered Sperm Whales for dog food. The Minke Whale quotas are lower than Japan and Norway by 200 or so. Iceland are continuing whaling because of pressure by Japan. For that matter, Icelandic whalers also say it is for scientific research, still no science done by the Icelandic either. I've mentioned enough of how it's done already.
Faroe Iselands
The Grindadrap is the largest killing of marine mammals in Europe.
It is done in the same way as the Japanese Dolphin killing, but it's worse! This is not a small group of people. People form all the Islands gather to participate in the "Grind". Inteere pods of Pilot Whales and sometimes Dolphins are driven into a beach, men with hooks and knives run out into the water, put the hook into the blowhole, dragged closer to the beach and they slice their head open and cut their spine. This is done until the entire god is dead.
Even children partake in this. What is the most interesting is that it was a Faroese study that came to the conclusion that Pilot Whales are contaminated with dangerously high level of mercury and is not safe to eat at all.
They even sell Norwegian Whale meat at the shops, this is without question illegal. Norway and Iceland export Whale meat to the Faroes and to Japan. How they get away with it is a mystery.
Conservation
Most countries stopped whaling because there were nearly anyone left. Still it is done and rest of the world look down at the people who are still doing it.
Whales are intelligent, social complex, self aware beings. If you kill one whole, rest of the pod will be depressed and can break the pod appart. They have their own complex languages and dialects.
Overpopulation of whales has never happened. A Whale cow can give birth every second year. Still they do not give birth every second year, they are too like humans. Even more so, they control their own population.
They are more important to the eco-system than most people think. A whale that dies naturally is food for the ocean up to 20 years in the future.
Whales are animals we can learn to communicate with. Would you like to kill someone you can talk to?
What you can do
- If you live in or visit a whaling nation, don't buy it.
- You can inform others
- Don't visit marine aquariums with dolphine shows.
- You have a voice, you can send letters to the ones who are doing this.
- You can protest or make an effort to stop it. There are organisations like NOAH, Sea Shepherd and IMMCS that are actively fighting aginst them.
- The message is this! If the ocean dies, civilizations will collapse, interfere ECOsystems will collapse. The Earth will recover, but we will not, this is more about self preservation than anything. If the Oceans die, we die. We don't live on this planet with a dead ocean.
Save our planet, save the whales!
New WorLd blogs P.O.R.S 2014
