California State University, Fullerton

Anti-Japanese Whaling Activity and Tradition

Avelyn Phung

Advanced College Writing ENG 301

Dr. Bruce
November 29, 2015

Anti-Japanese Whaling Activity and Tradition

People have been hunting whales for thousands of years. Whale hunting in Japan is dated
back even earlier. Erwin Vermeulen, the commentary from the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society, suggests that according to many archeological evidences, the Japanese have been
hunting whales since 12,000 BC. Gradually, whaling in Japan even becomes legal commercial
and industrial activities; Japanese hunts whale for meat, oil, and even cosmetics. Whaling in
Japan is not only a commercial activity, but it is also a historical tradition that exists long time
ago; Japan has the most whaling operations in the whole world, and the primary anti-whaling
comes from Japans whaling activities. Increasingly, the whaling in Japan has been the most
controversial topic over the years. Nowadays, it appears that more and more people are rather
against whaling activities than supporting it. According to the statistics data from World Wildlife
Foundation (WWF), Japan has killed 866 whales in 2002/2003 season despite being banned by
International Whaling Commercial (IWC) in 1986. The Japanese side claims that they are killing
whales for the scientific purposes instead, so they wont stop hunting whales in spite of the
action and protest from other countries and international organizations. The United States is one
of the countries that strongly dispute the Japans whale hunting activities. This paper will focus
on supporting anti-whaling protests and activities. Although, the Japanese have their own
opinions as well as the judgement to continue hunting whale, whaling is not only considered
as animal cruelty, but it also badly affects the ecological systems and does not bring any
benefits to human.
First of all, the extinction of whale species is one of the most obvious issues of whale
hunting. Japan whaling operates mostly in North Atlantic and Antarctic Oceans. North Atlantic
right whale species is a famous example on how whaling impacts the populations of that species.
In Preliminary Estimates of Whaling-induced Mortality in the 19th Century North Pacific Right

Whale (Eubalaena japonicus) Fishery, Adjusting for Struck-but-lost Whales and non-American
Whaling published in 2001, James Scarf indicated that North Atlantic right whale species used
to be common and abundant in the North Atlantic ocean in the late 19th century (261). It was
estimated about 10,000 to 30,000 Northern right whales in the North Pacific reported in 1986
(Scarf 262). However, later in North Atlantic Right Whales in Crisis published on the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2005, Scott Kraus and his coresearchers concerned about a fact that whaling for most 1000 years had brought the species of
North Atlantic right whales closer to extinct in early 20th century. In addition, According to the
Environmental Investigation Agencys report (EIA), Japans whale hunts of smaller whales,
dolphins and porpoises have threatened them close to the extinction. The annual report
from the EIA also shows that Japan has hunted down average of 30,000 cetaceans since the
whaling ban came to effect. The shocking total number of cetaceans caught from 1963 to 1998
displayed a huge number of 665,611 catches.
Secondly, whaling is considered as an action of animal cruelty, many reports and studies
reveal that many whaling methods does not kill the whales instantly, but the whale suffers the
pain before death. Sir David Attenborough told in the BBC UK news that: there is no humane
way to kill a whale at sea." One reason is that whale is a giant moving target which requires
extremely strong and powerful weapons to kill it. Indeed, many methods used to kill whales are
too inhumane. In The Endangered Species Handbook, Greta Nilsson and Michael Bean described
the methods used to kill down the whales. Harpooning used to be the method commonly used to
kill whales before. In the handbook, Nilsson also pointed out that whales were often pursued to
the exhausting point before being harpooned. Moreover, whales were harpooned many times
with explosion before the complete death (Nilsson, 1983). Another horrific fact is that it takes

some whales even about an hour to die (Nilsson, 1983). Besides the methods used to kill whales,
Nilsson also pointed out another cruel aspect of whaling. He revealed that killing female whales
would lead their calves starve to death; some whalers in the past even killed the calves first.
Whaling is extremely an inhumane activity, and it should be ceased.
Furthermore, killing whales in numbers will also affect badly to the marine ecological
system. Whales are very essential in regulating the marine food flow. The study of Kyung-Jun
Song and Chang Ik Zhang about minke whale revealed its ecological role in the Southwestern
East Sea (Sea of Japan) ecosystem. According to Song and Zhang, minke whales were tertiary
consumers, which regulate the population of other species below the marine food pyramids.
Being tertiary consumers on the food pyramid indicates that whales can eat many types of
food available from the ocean such as other fish, crustaceans, sea otters, and other small
marine living organisms; for instance, if there were no whales, the sea otter population
would become redundant which would badly affect the population of other species.
Therefore, whales play a very important role in maintaining the balance in the ocean
ecosystem. In addition, Whales or other living organism are the organic carbon source of the
ecosystem which is the central to the flow of energy and the trophic food web structure of
aquatic ecosystems. Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus are essential elements for life creation. In
an article named Impact of whaling on the ocean carbon cycle, the study from Andrew
Pershing revealed that Whales and other large vertebrae were the significant organic carbon
source available as well as other important micronutrient sources such as irons, zinc and
magnesium.
However, Japanese continues to hunt whale because whaling is an important part of
history, and Japanese wants to keep their old tradition alive. In an article named How people in

Japan feel about eating whale?, Casey Baseel interviewed five Japanese people. Most of the
Japanese people in the interview agreed that whale meat was a part of Japanese culture, and they
did not want to give up their tradition. Based on information from International Fund for
Animal Welfare (IFAW), Japan hunts down whales for the commercial benefit. In a report
of Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), Katie Nichol highlighted that several
whale-derived products in Japan had examined for cosmetics and personal care application.
However, besides the commercial benefit from whaling, Japanese had other excuses for continue
killing whale. The Japanese side claims that they are killing whale now for scientific purpose
instead such as collecting DNA samples.
In fact, scientists can collect and remote DNA sample without killing whales. The
samples can be collected from skin that whale shed, blubber and fecal matter (IFAW). Also,
studying sample can be collected when the whale exhale through their blowholes, allowing for
detection of pathogens (IFAW). In addition, scientists from IFAWs Song of the Whale
research vessel have pioneered technologies and techniques to study whales without harming
them. For commercial purposes, the products from whales can be replaced and alternated by
other vegan sources. For example, spermaceti can be replaced by jojoba oil in cosmetic industry
(Nichol). On the other hand, whale meat is not really a good nutrition source. Clare Perry from
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) concerned that the mercury level of whale meat was
found to be 19ppm, which was a shocking 47.5 times above the safe acceptable limits. EIA
recommend that retailers of whale and dolphin product in Japan should stop gambling with
consumers health. So the retailers should remove the products from the market (Perry).
Whaling becomes iconic for Japanese cultural identity. However, Paul Watson, the
founder and president of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, thinks that whaling is a blood and

slaughter tradition. Japanese culture or any other countrys culture is always welcomed to be
reserved, but they should choose wisely which part of the culture should be respected. Instead of
keeping inhumane activities like hunting whales, Japanese people can choose other meaningful
cultural traditions instead such as tea ceremony, origami, ikebana, Zen garden, or sumo
wrestling; those are very iconic for Japanese culture, and people around the world will absolutely
love them more than killing whales. In short, Japanese whaling should be ceased and dismissed
because it is not only considered as animal cruelty, but it also affects badly the Mother Earth.

References
1. Kraus, S. D., Brown, M. W., Caswell, H., Clark, C. W. et al, e. (2005). North
Atlantic Right Whales in Crisis. Science, 309(5734), 561-2. ProQuest. Web. 9
Nov. 2015.
2. Nilsson, Greta, and Michael Bean. The Endangered Species Handbook.
Washington:Animal Welfare Institute, 1983. Print.
3. Pershing, Andrew J., et al. "The Impact of Whaling on the Ocean Carbon Cycle: Why
Bigger Was Better", PLoS ONE, 5(8): e12444. DOI:10.1371. Web. 9 Nov. 2015
4. Scarff JE. "Preliminary Estimates of Whaling-induced Mortality in the 19th Century
Pacific Northern Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) Fishery, Adjusting for
Struck-but-lost Whales and non-American Whaling". J. Cetacean Res. Manage,
(Special Issue 2): 261268. 2001. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
5. Kyung-Jun, Song, and Zhang Chang Ik. "Ecological Role Of Common Minke Whales
In The Southwestern East Sea (Sea Of Japan) Ecosystem During The
Postcommercial Whaling Moratorium Period." Pacific Science 68.2 (2014): 185
196. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2015.
6. Baseel, Casey. How people in Japan feel about eating whale? we asked five people
for their opinion. Rocketnews24. 6 Oct. 2015
<http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/10/06/how-do-people-in-japan-feel-abouteating-whale-we-asked-five-people-for-their-opinions/>
7. The truth about Scientific whaling. International Fund for Animal Welfare. 2015.
<http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/our-work/whales/truth-about%E2%80%98scientific%E2%80%99-whaling>.
8. Nichol, Katie. Japan has secret plan to mine whale for cosmetics, claims charity.
Cosmeticsdesign-asia. 15 Jun. 2010. <http://www.cosmeticsdesignasia.com/Market-Trends/Japan-has-secret-plans-to-mine-whales-for-cosmeticsclaims-charity>
9. Perry, Clare. Whale and Dolphin meat tested in Japan exceeds mercury limits.
Environmental Investigation Agency. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <https://eiainternational.org/whale-dolphin-meat-tested-in-japan-exceeds-mercury-limits>

10. Vermeulen, Erwin. Unlimited Slaughter, Criminal Intent: A Small History of

Japanese Antarctic Whaling. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.Web. 23 Dec.
2013.
<http://www.seashepherd.org/commentary-and-editorials/2013/12/23/unlimitedslaughter-criminal-intent-a-small-history-of-japanese-antarctic-whaling-627>
11. Watson, Paul. The Truth about Tradition Japanese whaling. Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society. Web. 27 Jun. 2006.
<http://www.seashepherd.fr/news-and-media/editorial-060627-1.html>