my view on
Whale hunting is highly controversial. It is often regarded as cruel, immoral and cruel. The whale is an endangered species that we must protect rather than kill for consumption. Some condemn the hunt because whales are intelligent animals and others point to the brutal slaughter. The question is whether these arguments are all justified.
Shortly after the Second World War, the Nederlandsche Maatschappij voor de Walvisvaart (NMW) was founded. With the ships Willem Barendsz I and II, the Netherlands killed 24,700 whales in the waters around the South Pole in a period of 17 years. That was 1,500 annually. Iceland and Norway are currently catching far fewer, 150 and 500 whales respectively. When in the early 1960s it became clear that whales were becoming an endangered species, the Netherlands immediately stopped whaling. The NWM was discontinued and since then the Netherlands has been opposed to whaling.
International background
Modern shipping has caused overhunting. As a result, many whale species were threatened with extinction. In 1931 countries started international cooperation to regulate whaling. The most important result of the collaboration was the 1946 International Convention for the Regulations of Whaling (ICRW) convention. At the same time, the countries established the International Whaling Committee (IWC) to guide compliance with the convention.
Moratorium
In 1982 the IWC decided to impose a moratorium, a temporary ban, on commercial whaling from 1985. The ban did not apply to scientific whaling and the traditional hunt by peoples who depend on whaling for survival. The moratorium is still valid to this day.
Norway, Iceland, Japan
Norway is the only one that has never cared about the ban and it does not recognize the moratorium. Iceland has been hunting whales again since 2008. Japan hunts whales under the guise of scientific research. Whale meat has been eaten in Japan for centuries. In the West, whale meat is not eaten but used for gasoline, lubricating oil and cosmetic purposes.
Are the arguments against yet?
Opponents such as Greenpeace are passionately fighting whaling. Their arguments are well known, but are they still correct?
The whale is dying
Are whales a dying species? Some species are indeed still under threat, but others are doing better than ever. The countries that still catch whales, Norway, Japan and Iceland, apply strict quotas in order not to endanger whale stocks. For example, in the waters around Iceland today there are 20,000 large fin whales, of which whalers are allowed to catch a maximum of 150 per year, which is less than 1 percent of the total population.
The whale is 1 species
??The whale?? is threatened with extinction, say opponents of whaling. ??The whale?? does not exist. There are many species of whales, many of which certainly deserve protection as their numbers are still low. However, the numbers of a whale like the minke whale have grown, with an estimated eight to nine hundred thousand swimming in the oceans. The stereotypical whale, the sperm whale, is also not threatened with about two million individuals.
The whale has a high intelligence
According to proponents, whaling is not fundamentally different from ordinary fishing. However, opponents consider whaling immoral because the animals are said to be more intelligent than others. But this has never been proven. Whales do have physically larger brains, but that says nothing about an alleged superior intelligence. The size of the brain is proportional to the size of its further enormous dimensions. Although a higher intelligence has been demonstrated in the dolphin, it is a distant relative of the whale. It strongly seems that the whale (a mammal, by the way and not a fish itself) is no different in intelligence from fish like the trout or the herring.
There is long-term and unnecessary suffering
Killing the whale is cruel and animal unfriendly according to the opponents. The animal would suffer long and unnecessarily. In practice, however, this is not so bad. The animals are killed by a modern harpoon. This is fired with a grenade that explodes directly in the head of the animal. Although this method of course sounds gruesome, the animal was killed immediately, sparing the suffering. Compared to animals bred for consumption, such as cows and pigs, whales are, according to proponents of whaling, well off. No-long-suffering to the slaughterhouse and whales swim freely in the ocean their entire lives, while other animals are locked in cages.