Hi Jessica:
Where are you in NZ? I just returned from two weeks there (still my
favorite place on earth!)
This is a horribly complex issue but the easiest thing for me to do is
to send you a recent paper on commercial whaling that provides some
background (I wrote this with Scott Baker from the University of Auckland).
The bottom line here is that there are two philosophical approacfhes to
whaling (and sealing). One is that whales should not be killed at all
because they represent one of the worst examples of human misuse of the
environment, and have suffered enough (and also that they're symbolic of
the planet's problems as a whole). Another is that they're a resource
like any other resource and should be available for exploitation.
Many of those buying into the latter argument would agre that any
exploitation has to be sustainable and not result in the sort of
poulation declines seen in the last century. The problem today is that
the major whaling nations (notably Japan) clearly have no interest in
sustainable whaling, and their track record of dishonesty in this regard
is poor and very recent (we know now that japan killed whales illegally
up until at least one year AFTER the IWC moratorium on whaling went into
effect). So until a watertight system of inspection is in place, from
catcher boat to market, whaling will continue to be open to the kind of
abuse and deception that characterized it for decades.
One final note: the New Zealand whale fishery operated a number of land
processing stations for many years, but the industry went out of
business in the early 1960's due to declining catches. In particular,
catches plummeted in 1960, and we know now that a major reason for this
was Soviet illegal whaling, which killed almost 13000 hmpback whales in
the feeding grounds to the S of New Zealand in the winter of 1959/60.
Hope this helps!
Phil Clapham
Oakley wrote:
> To Phil,
> My name is Jessica Oakley and I am from New Zealand. I am in my 7th form
> year (Year 13) at Northcote College, i have just picked up geography as
> one of my subjects and we have an assignment to do on Whaling and
> Sealing. My question for you is: 'How is it that whaling and sealing has
> become an issue?' (People who are for/ against; arguments for each side).
> I would really appreciate it is you could get back to me with some
> information
--Phillip J. Clapham, Ph.D. Large Whale Biology Program Northeast Fisheries Science Center 166 Water Street Woods Hole, MA 02543, U.S.A.
tel. 508 495-2316 fax 508 495-2066 email: pclapham@whsun1.wh.whoi.edu
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