Killer whales breach the sea surface.
SEVENTEEN years ago, whilst aboard a ship sailing from the Seychelles to Madagascar, I spotted my first whale, an orca or killer whale, breaching the sea surface and then tail slapping as it descended into the depths below. This whale followed the side of the vessel for several kilometres in the Indian Ocean; no doubt inviting fellow passengers to marvel at the magnificent beauty of this leviathan.
My mind flipped back to my school days when, as a 14-year-old, we read in English Literature lessons the American author Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick or ‘The Whale’. This book was first published in 1851. Melville, a distinguished writer, based this novel on his impecunious times 10 years before when he signed up as a crewman on a whaling ship. His voyage took him from the US eastern seaboard to the Caribbean Sea and on to the South Atlantic Ocean. As a schoolboy, Melville’s book was a dramatic change from reading William Shakespeare’s plays.
Subsequently, I have learned that Melville’s own love for Shakespeare is well illustrated in his description of Captain Ahab in his hunt for “the giant white sperm whale”. It was only when my father took me to a local cinema to see the film ‘Moby Dick’ that I realised how barbaric whale hunting was. Compassion for these marine giants has since remained close to my heart.
Why were whales hunted?
The abject slaughter of these magnificent creatures is recorded in early historical records when whale meat and its blubber were a valuable source of protein for many civilisations. With the invention of the harpoon and later the harpoon gun, the heyday of whaling was in the 19th century. The whale oil fuelled lamps and their teeth and bones were ground down for spurious medicinal cures. Whale bones where even used as rigid supports in ladies corsets in Victorian times and into the first decade of the 20th century.
In the mid-1940s, the numbers of the larger whales – the blue whale – were so reduced that hunters pursued smaller whales such the fin and humpback. Over time, these became so scarce that the hunt shifted to the even smaller varieties of sei and minke whales.
International Whaling Commission (IWC)
An agreement reached by many nations, as long ago as 1938, led to the establishment of a whale sanctuary in the Antarctic waters. Sadly, World War II intervened and the official IWC as we now know it was established in 1946 and the sanctuary was reopened in 1955. In 1978, the whole of the Indian Ocean was declared as a whale sanctuary. The Southern Ocean protected whales in their summer feeding grounds where krill (small shrimp-like creature) was plentiful and the main source of food for whales. The very heart of the Antarctic food chain is phytoplankton, which draws its energy from Antarctica’s summer sunlight. Krill feeds off the phytoplankton and zooplankton. The warmer waters of the Indian Ocean provide ideal breeding grounds for these mammals.
A mother whale and calf are hauled up a Japanese whaling ship in the name of ‘research’. – Photo by Australian Customs and Border Protection Service
Thirty-seven years ago, the IWC moratorium banned commercial whale hunting, which was supported by many former whale hunting nations to include Iceland and Norway. There was a ‘loophole’ in the agreement to allow Japanese whalers to hunt these mammals for ‘scientific research’. Since that date, Japanese whalers have hunted down 900 minke whales and 10 fin whales annually. Post World War II Japan saw whale meat as vital source of protein. In 1964, over 24,000 whales were slaughtered. In the same year some 45 per cent of all meat consumption in Japan was essentially whale meat.
In 2018, Japan’s ‘hunter killers’ despatched 333 minke whales to include 122 pregnant females and for what? Today the consumption of whale meat in that country amounts to 0.1 per cent of all meat consumed! Even Japan’s largest supermarkets have openly declared that their stocks of whale meat are at minimal levels and that they have no plans to increase them. Frankly, Japan’s claims for its promotion of whale-hunting truly rings very hollow.
Recent developments
On July 1, five small whaling ships sailed out from Kushiro, Hokkaido, on a commercial whale hunt. This was the very day after Japan had ceased to be a member of the IWC. Up until then, Japanese whalers had played ‘fun and games’ with the IWC under the so called ‘scientific research’ loophole. On July 2, two minke whales were loaded aboard these vessels. Clearly this is unwarranted slaughter for no legal reason at all. For the Japanese people and their economy, whaling is a doomed industry.
Most endangered species
Five species have been enlisted as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with yet more species registered as vulnerable. The most endangered are listed below with present population estimates in brackets.
1. Northern Right whale (300 to 1,000)
2. Southern Right whale (7,000)
3. Bowhead whale (8,280)
4. Blue whale (9,000)
5. Humpback whale (10,000 to 13,100)
How can we relate to these figures? Perhaps we should start by thinking about the size of the settlements in which we live, be they cities, towns, or villages, and imagine the effect if these numbers of people were lost within our community in only a few years without our concern and protection.
Do we really have social and environmental consciences? Can we allow these marine giants of our oceans to become extinct because of the misplaced nationalistic desires of one nation? If ever again in Japan, China, or any South East Asian country or anywhere else in the world, I shall always walk out of any restaurant or place that offers whale meat, shark steak, or shark fin soup on its menu. The counter argument that all whale species diminish local fish stocks is fallacious.