Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Yunhan Jiang
2/28/2019
Introduction
In the Hebrew Bible, there is a giant sea monster which is knows as a powerful and cruel
enemy of gods. It is called Leviathan (Cirlot, 1971). Having a giant body and the power of
apocalypse, Leviathan is often compared to other great monsters in other mythologies or tales.
also noted as a destined enemy of the god Hadad. Later scholars interpret Leviathan as referring
to huge, brutal and mysterious aquatic animals (Gesenius, 1859). As time flies, in modern era
the name “Leviathan” used by novelists and poets becomes a term for large sea animals, usually
whales, in general.
However, although having such a deterrent nickname, whales are warm and kind animals,
and are facing a fatal threat from human -- commercial whaling. According to EIA International,
at around the middle of 19th century, modern era of commercial had begun. In short sixty years,
1 A serpent or dragon which is opposite to god Indra, and is finally killed by him (Gopal, 1990).
2 A sea serpent, the archenemy of the Norse Gods (Simek, 1993).
Jiang 2
the stock of many whale species suffered a sudden decrease. Data given by International
Whaling Commission (2019) expose that from 1920s to 1940s, several species such as blue
whale, humpback whale and minke whale were heavily exploited by industrial whaling and
commercial whaling. Although society realized that whales were over-exploited, and began to
regulate whalers and whaling industries, whales were already reduced to only a very small
the most official whaling association in the world -- posted several whaling prohibitions on
specific species, such as fin whale and blue whale. In spite of this, whaling also happened
annually, and whaling cannot be completely controlled only by setting policies, as there are
countries which already taste tremendous economic profit and industrial benefits from whaling,
and does not want to stop even a little bit. Whaling problem should be taken serious
consideration, and there has to be a more powerful organization to take charge of whaling
problem. Moreover, normal people also should reject whaling and other whale products.
The seriousness
While talking about commercial whaling, normal people will firstly come up with
giant bodies, they are not able to die easily during the whaling process, because the way to kill a
whale quickly at sea does not exist. As those pierced wounds keep contacting with salty sea
water, nearly every whale dies in extremely pain. According to Mann’s (2000) research, whales
protect their important and fragile organs by growing thick skins and fat, thus it is impossible to
Jiang 3
destroy those organs from outside to decrease the pain. Whales also have large amount of blood,
nearly fourteen thousand pounds (6400kg), so killing them through bleeding is also ridiculous.
Moreover, for preventing whales from struggling, whalers even use grenade harpoons.
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/whales_last_push/
The cruelty of whaling does not only shows up in whaling process, but also happens in
ruining whale’s habitats. Roman (2016) gives an example that whales sometimes do physical
contacts with other individuals, and the way they identify each other is sound. Thus, whaling
ships broadcast sounds to attract whales. Most of the whales die under those cruel tools, and
there are some survivors -- they escape because they get too close to ships, and be deeply shaved
by the high-speed screw propellers. Actually, Roman (2016) mentions that not every whale has
Jiang 4
the luck to survive from such serious injury, many of them are killed because their vertebra are
completely destroyed. For those survivors, however, have no choice but carry scary and
disgusting scars in the rest of their life. Injured parts cannot recover because whales live at sea,
and sea water stimulate those wounds, causing extreme pain to whales. Far more than that,
whales having ugly “marks” on their backs may be isolated by their crews. Whaling activity
threats whales’ life and habits seriously while it does zero contribution to ecosystems under
water. We human who have sympathy should oppose whaling together, and make such bloody
Although whaling starts to be controlled while more people notice how cruel it is, there are
countries which deny to obey those policies, especially Iceland, Norway, and other whaling
countries in Europe, and Japan in Asia. More than 40,000 whales were killed by the three
countries since 1986, and several evidences expose that these countries continue in doing
whaling activities, while whaling was already controlled by IWC. Denyer (2018), the bureau
chief in Tokyo of The Washington Post, exposes Japan once announced to make a breakaway
from IWC at the end of June, 2018, and forcefully restarted commercial whaling around July.
While in IWC, Japan also found several ways to keep whaling. According to Arne (2013),
“Japan has been hunting whales for the past thirty years under a scientific programme. Critics
say the practice is a cover for what actually amounts to commercial whaling.” Arne is not the
only one who points out the irrationality in Japan’s whaling process. Junko Sakuma, a Japanese
researcher who has already spent more than 10 years in Japan’s whaling industries for study,
Jiang 5
also has similar thought. “There is no benefit to Japan from whaling, but nobody knows how to
quit.” In an interview at Tsukiji fish market, the worldwide biggest fish market known for its
fresh tuna sale, Junko told the journalist, “If whale meat faces a shortage, the price should soar.
But things does not happen, because most Japanese people nowadays do not consume whale
products, including whale meat.” She adds, “Consumption has been falling for years. Even when
whale meat becomes harder to buy, the price has no chance to increase.” Junko’s research allows
the world to know that the average consumption of whale meat per Japanese person was less
The reason why Japan does not want to give up commercial whaling -- even when the
demands of whale product decrease obviously -- is childish and irresponsible. A response given
by Japanese government is “Whaling has already become a part of Japanese culture and history”.
In their words, whalers keep whaling for decades, and already turn whaling activity into part of
their life. Japan never accepts foreigner’s criticism in what they can eat and what they cannot.
There is a famous conversation between Japanese official and Hayes (2016), a BBC journalist:
“Japanese people never eat rabbits, but we don’t tell British people that they shouldn’t.” Facing
such ridiculous answer, Hayes replies that rabbits are not in endangered species list. In another
word, commercial whaling has already joined the global economy, and in some countries it
becomes a tradition. To stop whaling in short term is not realistic, and we have to set our hope in
long term.
If we allow commercial whaling to continue, and never try to prevent whaling countries,
whaling activity will seriously ruin marine ecosystems and natural environment. Whales, as the
biggest species in the world, have ability and enough power to influence the nature. They act as
a part of the ecosystems, and do uncountable contributions to the wild. Mann (2000) lists several
aspects of how and why whale’s habits are functional. By mentioning about whale, the most
famous habit been noticed by people should be the “whale pump”. Whale pump is the behavior
whales use to breath. While pumping out the water inside their bodies, whales also pump out
nutrients such as iron element and nitrogen. Those nutrients then float on the surface of oceans,
and feed animals living nearby, such as fishes and sea birds. Another helpful activity mentioned
by Donovan (2008) is the seabed digging process. Gray and humpback whales usually feed
themselves at seabed’s depth, and when they swim pass by, they disturb the soils and cause
those substantial nutrients to be exposed. Such sediments are valuable nourishment to abyssal
creatures. There are activities far more than those two, and a lot of numbers of species survive
depending on whale activities. If commercial whaling exacerbates, it will cause a food shortage
What’s more, a poetic phenomenon happening in marine ecosystem is called “whale fall”.
When a whale dies, another story has just begun. The body falls to seabed and eternally lies. It
contains enormous nutrients, and is able to serve food to abyssal animals in order to create a
brand-new small life ecosystem. There are significant amounts of carbon and massive organic
enrichment contained in the corpse, and construct the barren and impoverished seabed into
Jiang 7
paradise of microorganisms. In some articles, whale fall is described as “the last fondness
whales give to the nature”, how romantic. Mann (2000) proofs, that if no whale fall exists,
seabeds will keep barren and no life will be able to survive. Back to the present, commercial
whaling causes a large number of whales been killed cruelly on land, which means less whale
falls are able to be created. Commercial whaling indirectly endangers life in abyssal zone.
According to the data given on the website of IWC, more than 2.9 million of whales were
killed in the 20th century. IWC announced a moratorium on commercial whaling, which was the
first important step about whale protecting. After the policy started in 1986, the rate of whales
were killed since 1986 (EIA International). However, although the number decreased, it was still
a huge loss of whale stocks. Life should not be counted as numbers. (On editing)
Possible solutions
We all understand that profit pushes commercial activities, so the most direct way to stop
commercial whaling is to stop supporting whale products. There are lamp oil, candles and soaps
which are made from sperm oil and whale oil, whale meat for human consumption and animal
feed, fertilizer made from whale bones, and strings on tennis rackets which are made from
tendons (KCPC 2001). In fact, there are plenty of alternatives which have better quality and
lower price compare to those whale products. Advocating the idea of anti-whaling and
Jiang 8
anti-whale products can be an effective way to reduce whaling activities. According to an article
from Human Society International (HSI), whales are kinds of species which are easily affected
by environmental containment. While eating, whales absorb those organochlorines3 and heavy
metals such as mercury which float on the top of the oceans and are contained by plankton. If
people consume whale meat, chemicals adjust on whale meat will also be absorbed by people
and can cause serious health problems. By exposing such fatal facts, anti-whaling activities run
actively and effectively. Even in one of the biggest whaling countries, Japan, there are more than
four thousand supermarkets which already refuse to sell whale and dolphin products.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35397749
At least 85% of Japanese citizens strongly oppose their government to use money from
Anti-whaling activities are held not only in Japan, but also in Northern Europe whaling
countries such as Iceland and Finland. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW), they started a joint project with the Association of Icelandic Whale Watchers (IceWhale)
in the summer of 2010. The project is called “Meet Us Don’t Eat Us”, and is held in Reykjavík4
annually. Whale friendly restaurants also began to build around the beginning of 21st century in
Northern European countries such as Iceland and Norway. What’s more, volunteers use media to
make several scientific videos to introduce the important role of whales in nature. In
Smithsonian Ocean website, there is a short video introducing the whale fall and its functions.
Fig 3. A screenshot from the video “Life After Whale”. Retrieved from:
https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/marine-mammals/life-after-whale-whale-falls
The producer uses paper material to represent the whale fall and life on it. The style is also
acceptable and attractive to kids, helping them to learn the world earlier and evokes their
responsibilities to protect the nature. In 2017, more than 80% of unsold whale meat in Norway
were abandoned by markets and companies, because whale meat became hard to sell (EIA
International). In Iceland, only 1% of citizens eat whale meat regularly, and at least 34% of
Icelander actively and strongly oppose commercial whaling, which number is nearly doubled
Citation
Cirlot, Juan Eduardo. A Dictionary of Symbols (2nd ed.). Dorset Press, 1971.
Gopal, Madan. K.S. Gautam, ed. India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of
Gesenius, Wilhelm, and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles. “Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old
eia-international.org/reports-mm/keeptheban/
Roman, Joe (2006-05-01). Whale. Reaktion Books. p. 24. ISBN 9781861895059. Retrieved 25
March 2017.
Mann, Janet, et al. Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales. University of
Wingfield-Hayes, Rupert. “Japan and the Whale.” BBC News, BBC, 8 Feb. 2016,
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35397749.
Kalland, Arne, and Brian Moeran. Japanese Whaling: End of an Era? Routledge, 2013.
“Whale Products.” KCPC Education Resource Web Site: 9.2.3 Molar Heat of Combustion, 2001,
discovery.kcpc.usyd.edu.au/9.5.1/9.5.1_whale.html.
“Human Health Concerns of Whale Meat.” Humane Society International, 26 July 2002,
www.hsi.org/issues/whaling/facts/human_health_concerns_of_whale_meat.html.
Denyer, Simon, and Akiko Kashiwagi. “Japan to Leave International Whaling Commission,
www.washingtonpost.com/world/japan-to-leave-international-whaling-commission-resume-
commercial-hunt/2018/12/26/2c32fb20-08c9-11e9-892d-3373d7422f60_story.html?noredire
Jiang 12
ct=on&utm_term=.84c36d4251af.
ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/marine-mammals/life-after-whale-whale-falls.