Arguments For and Against Whaling
Here are the arguments for and against whaling in the 21st Century.
Whaling harpoon
Arguments for whaling
Conservation
status
Some
species of whale, like the Minke Whale have never been considered endangered and other species are showing signs of recovery. It is these species of whales that whalers wish to hunt, believing that with modern techniques a hunt of these species could be sustained without damage to the ecosystem and the whale’s position at the top of the food chain.
Method of killing
Whalers say that giving whales a free-roaming lifestyle followed by a quick death by explosive harpoon is less cruel than the long-term suffering of battery farmed animals also used to provide food.
The economic
arguement
Whales are the largest animals in the world and a single whale kill provides more meat than with any other animal. Whaling also provides employment and economic support for fisheries, restaurants and other related businesses.
Intelligence
Anti-whaling campaigners and nations say that whales are amongst the most intelligent of mammals. However, those in favour of whaling point out that pigs are also amongst the most intelligent of mammals and argue that it is inconsistent to allow pigs to be used for food, and not whales.
Fishing
A Minke Whale will eat 10kg fish meat per kg which puts pressure on the availability of commercial catches. Whalers therefore argue that an annual cull of whales is now needed in order to make that fish available to humans.
Humpback breaching
Arguments against whaling
Conservation status
The past mismanagement of whale stocks has reduced the overall whale population to a significant extent and four species of whale are still endangered. It is unlikely that the Blue Whale will be hunted again because its population levels have remained static since the hunting ban on them in the 1960s.
Organic growth
The farming of whales in captivity has never been attempted and would almost certainly be impossible. However whales are killed using explosive harpoons and anti-whaling campaigners say this method of killing is cruel as a whale can take a number of minutes to die.
Economic argument
Those opposed to whaling argue that a whale can only be killed once but watched many times, so the economic argument should firmly support the side of not hunting whales. Iceland for example, has some of the most-developed whale-watching operations in the world and yet Minke Whale hunting began again in August 2003.
Intelligence
Anti-whaling campaigners say that whales are amongst the most intelligent of mammals and it is therefore morally wrong to kill them for food. Most of the research on mammal intelligence has been carried out on Bottlenose dolphins and while they scored highly in some research, it is nearly impossible to duplicate these tests for whales.
Fishing
Scientists and anti-whaling campaigners have argued that much of the type of food that whales eat (krill and deep sea squid in particular) is not eaten by humans and so there is no reason to blame them for the collapse of the fisheries. However, Minke whales are known to eat a wide range of species including krill, herring, mackerel, cod and haddock.
Who do you think has the right argument about whaling in the 21st Century and why?
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