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Whaling
Whaling is the term used to describe the hunting and killing of whales, originally by aboriginal groups for subsistence purposes. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, the usefulness of whale products such as meat, oil (for heating, lighting and as a  lubricant), teeth, ambergris (a stomach secretion used as a perfume fixative) and baleen (filter plates from the mouths of baleen whales and used most famously to stiffen corsets) became recognized, and the industrialization of whaling occurred. The emergence and persistence of commercial whaling through the middle of the last century has led to the devastation of the great whale populations worldwide..jpg)
After many hundreds of years of unregulated commercial whaling, humankind finally started to heed the negative effects of its actions in the 1940s. Some whale populations were so depleted - such as that of the blue whale, which has never recovered - that they were at serious risk of extinction. Populations of right whales, so-named because they were the “right” whales to hunt, since they are relatively slow and float to the surface when killed, now have populations in the low hundreds.
AWI is a
founding member or
the “Whales Need US”
coalition, an unprecedented joint effort of 20
U.S.-based environmental, conservation and animal
welfare organizations.
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Whaling is Inherently
Cruel |
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The principal technique used by commercial whalers is to shoot a harpoon tipped with an explosive penthrite grenade, into the whale while aboard a boat. In some hunts, rifles are also used as the primary or secondary killing method. Even the most advanced whaling methods cannot always render the whales irreversibly insensitive to pain prior to slaughter, as is the usual requirement for most animals raised for food and other animals.
Modern whaling involves projectiles being fired at distance into large, moving targets from moving platforms on a shifting sea, often under extreme weather conditions. The probability of obtaining a clean strike with a swift death is extremely low and animals can take hours to die. While some whalers, notably Norway, claim death can be achieved within minutes, the data to support these claims is “self-collected” by the whalers and therefore questionable.
The IWC criteria used to determine death is also questionable. Currently a whale is considered insensible and/or dead when it displays relaxation of the lower jaw, no flipper movement or sinking without active movement. Several respected scientists have questioned the validity of these criteria and agree that the only true measure of insensitivity and death is to examine an animal’s brain, which for a whale, is impractical and cost-prohibitive.
There are significant differences in the mass, length and organ placement of the whale species targeted by whalers yet the methods of slaughter are the same. While an exploding penthrite grenade harpoon might be successful on a 25-foot minke whale, the same harpoon has little chance of rendering a 60-foot fin whale dead or unconscious with a single shot.
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Whales Are Facing An Uncertain Future Because of Other Threats |
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Whaling nations purport that whale stocks can sustain commercial hunting, but this is not true. Whale populations have not sufficiently recovered enough to sustain hunting, especially given the other threats they currently face. These threats include toxic pollutants such as DDT, dioxins, PCBs and mercury; deadly high intensity sounds produced by military sonar and air guns; by-catch, with some 300,000 dolphins and whales drowned every year after they become entangled in fishing nets or other fishing gear; over-fishing of prey species; ship strikes; climate change affecting habitat, migration routes and prey species availability; and habitat destruction.
The consumption of whales and dolphins is also very concerning because of the level of pollutants that are present in the meat. As the oceans’ top predators, whales accumulate extremely dangerous levels of heavy metals such as mercury in their bodies, which can be harmful to humans if ingested.
Not only is whaling damaging to whale populations, but the depletion of predators can also devastate whole ecosystems. Biologist Craig Smith’s research shows that the lack of “whale falls,” dead whales
that sink to the ocean floor, may be advancing the extinction of
deep-sea scavengers that depend on whale carcasses for survival. |
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