[Erin] Sustainable Cetaceans?

Ya know, here's the thing. I believe whales are, if not as intelligent as us, sentient animals. They have names for each other. They have a language that we're actually beginning to decode to a certain extent. I don't believe that culture can justify the killing and eating of a fully sentient species.

Humpback whales have learned to trust man in the forty-five years since we stopped hunting them.

If Japan carries out its aim of harpooning 50 humpback whales in the Antarctic this Southern Hemisphere Summer, the whale watching industry on Australia's east and west coasts will soon find out.

The humpbacks are the same as those who delight Australians each year and have created a $AU 300 million a year whale watching industry.

There is no benefit to mankind by killing these whales. Their meat won't help the poor ease their hunger but will grace the tables of the wealthy.
The killing is done in the name of science but is it science to kill the subject?
chris pash http://thelastwhale.blogspot.com

I think most people's feelings about preserving endangered species has to do with the cuteness factor. I admit it's true for me, at least somewhat. Whales are cute (and even inspiring, look at the success of Whale Rider, a simultaneously Crunchy Con and Crunchy Lib movie if ever there was one).

Polar bears are adorable -- from a distance; obviously they're fierce and dangerous up close. But the adorable factor is why they have become the poster cub for those who believe in and want to try to do something about climate change.

(Side note: has anyone noticed how EVERY store in the universe is featuring polar bear merchandise for kids, even though most of them don't have a direct tie-in to The Golden Compass, the controversial children's movie we've discussed here on CC that both stars polar bears and advocates atheism? Rod **has** to write about that when he gets back ...)

I have a background in public relations. If someone said 40 or 30 years ago, as I might have, "Preserve the world's last dinosaurs, they're being hunted to extinction," there would have been an uproar in favor of it. I mean, living dinosaurs -- we have to keep them, right? They're the ultimate link to earth's past. (Unless you are fanatically anti-evolution in your beliefs, of course.)

And, indeed, alligators and crocodiles are that ultimate link. And the campaign to save them in the U.S., Australia and other countries succeeded anyway, without a catchy slogan. (I still like my idea, but Steve Irwin, rest his soul, managed to make the models for mythical dragons somewhat "cute" anyway.)

On the other hand ... on Sanibel Island in Florida (where the habitat allows alligators to grow to 13 or 14 feet), where several people have been killed in recent years -- and on any major body of water in Africa, where poor people must depend on the croc-infested rivers and lakes for washing clothes and potable water, and literally hundreds die every year -- people probably feel like they are living in Jurassic Park.

When the power was cut and the T-rexes and raptors came out for blood.

For all that, like the late and misnomered "Crocodile Hunter," I couldn't imagine living in a world without the leatherbags. (Their very nickname being indicative of an interesting example of "sustainability," as there are lots of crocodile "farms" around the world where crocs are raised and then killed for their skins.)

I also couldn't imagine living in a world without lions and tigers and other majestic man-eaters that, lacking reptilian scales, pass the cuteness test despite their ferocity.

As do polar bears, for that matter. Go figure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061800890_pf.html

Some opinion polls show that younger generations of Japanese are more interested in conservation than culinary delights. The price for whale meat in Japan has decreased in recent years -- falling to $12 a pound in 2004 compared with $15 a pound in 1999. Demand for whale meat has been anemic. Last year, the industry put 20 percent of its 4,000-ton haul into frozen surplus.

So the government and pro-whaling groups have pumped cash into the promotion of eating whale meat. The government is spending about $5 million a year on such campaigns, while groups of housewives and other organizations are sponsoring whale cooking classes and related seminars to stimulate the market, according to officials and industry sources.

....

Pro-whalers in Japan contend that commercial whaling would popularize the meat by making it more affordable.

But they concede that they will first need to change the views of many younger Japanese, who now tend to see the animals as creatures in need of protection.

"Most young Japanese do not recall the years after World War II when we were hungry and the Americans wanted us to eat whale to survive," said Yuriko Shiraishi, 72, head of Women's Forum for Fish. "The whale saved us then, but thousands of years before that, Japanese were eating whale. Now, the Japanese don't want to eat whale because they don't know about it as a delicious and healthy source of protein. That's what needs to change."

The pro-whalers have taken aim largely at Japan's schools. Schools in western Wakayama Prefecture, which has long been a base of the whaling industry, this year began regularly serving whale meat for lunch. Dozens of schools nationwide will host whale seminars this year like the one at Takadate Elementary School in Natori, a suburb of the city of Sendai, about 280 miles north of Tokyo. At that school, children receive a scientific lecture on whales before enjoying a whale-meat snack. But if the parents and students here are any gauge, mass marketing of whale meat may yet be a hard sell.

"I think it's okay to have these small events so we can pass down our past whaling tradition to the children, but I am not in favor of restarting commercial whaling," said Tomoko Yanai, 45, who has two children. "The meat is delicious. I used to eat it when I was in school. But whales are precious animals and now I feel they should be protected."