Should whale hunting be banned?

Question

its for my science coursework - so please give your reasons.

Answer 1

No, there's no reason to ban controlled whale hunting on species with healthy populations, and decreasing the numbers of some types of whales, e.g. Minke whales might actually help to protect other species like Blue Whales who are in direct competition with them for food.

I think of myself as an environmentally minded person, but it's always best to be objective and use your brain, not just sway to public opinion.

I've answered this question before, this is what I said last time so that you can get some pro-hunting arguments for your course work:

No, or at least not any more than it already is.

Humans are hunters, and have hunted whales for thousands of years, for most of that time it hasn't been a controversial pursuit, whaling was a dangerous activity, conducted from small crafts close to shore. Population densities of humans were much lower and the populations of whales were perfectly capable of surviving the relatively small number of human caused deaths. The reasons that populations of certain species of whales fell to dangerously low levels last century are best summarized into two main points, capability and demand.

Capability is obvious, industrialization allowed hunters to use bigger ships, travel to better whaling areas, kill more successfully, whaling simply became easier.

Demand increased because human populations were suddenly increasing with industrialization, but it's important to remember that most of the whales hunted during this time weren't eaten, it wasn't their meat we were after, it was their oil. Whale oil had almost as many uses in the newly industrialized world as crude oil does in ours today.

Nowadays we don't use whale oil, we've found alternatives, meat is the only commodity currently in demand from whaling, and only in certain areas.

After thirty years of an almost worldwide whaling ban populations of most species have rebounded. An estimated 700 000 minke whales live in the waters off Antarctica, this is a very healthy population for a creature of it's size. Japan is the only nation to hunt Minkes in these waters, and letting aside their slightly suspect "scientific" motivations, the Minke population has proved well capable of weathering the hunt.

The other 2 nations which hunt whales commercialy are Norway and Iceland, both in their home waters and both strictly controlled with firm quotas. Iceland in particular relies on it's fishing grounds for a significant part of it's economy, by not hunting whales which had reached healthy population levels, in an otherwise heavily exploited sea, they were passively changing the natural balance. More whales, eating more fish, in competition with fishermen also catching the same fish was endangering species of fish, particularly cod. Iceland officially restarted commercial whaling in 2005, they have set a quota of 30 Minke and 9 Fin whales a year, out of estimated populations of 174 000 and 30 000 respectively. Norway has similar controls, though significantly higher quotas; in 2007 they killed 592 Minke whales from an estimated population of 107 000.

Many other indigenous and semi-indigenous people world wide hunt whales in more or less traditional fashion on a smaller scale, the Inuit of Canada and Greenland, the Lamalera and Lamakera people of Indonesia and various Caribbean communities to name a few. These hunts are on a scale similar to historical rates and so do not significantly affect whale populations.

So whaling on the scale we know it today is not damaging to whale populations, and a ban would not be beneficial even to the long term survival of whales. Indeed if properly controlled and enforced whaling could probably increase significantly with no negative affects.

This leaves the issue of it being "horrific", is it? Is hunting whales for meat worse than hunting big game for trophys? is it crueler than battery farming chickens? or Veal rearing? Is it more environmentally irresponsible than the overfishing of North Atlantic Cod? or cutting down rain forests to farm cheap beef? Objectively speaking whaling is not such a bad industry these days. Responsible Whaling is not only possible but has been practiced successfully now for over thirty years, while whale numbers continue to rise. It certainly should not be banned.

Answer 2

Whale hunting with dogs has already been banned.

Joking aside, yes I think it should be banned.

Answer 3

YES! YES YES!  I  agree with the person above, all hunting should be banned.  It's not necessary anymore.  Whales already are faced with pollution, military sonar signals, etc that are killing a lot of them.  Whale hunting should definitely be banned EVERYWHERE!!!!

Answer 4

A baby seal walks into a bar. "What can I get you?" asks the bartender. "Anything but a Canadian Club," replies the seal.

Answer 5

Yes.All hunting should but whale hunting especially because it is so cruel and because so many whale species are endangered or close to endangered.There is no way to kill a whale quickly at sea-even explosive harpoons don't cause anything like instant death due to the vast size of whales.

Answer 6

YES!

Answer 7

YES.

Answer 8

yes because it is barbaric, along with hare coursing,fox hunting and seal killing.

Answer 9

Yes, it serves no useful purpose. The Japanese do it as whale blubber is a luxury food item. Overall it is cruel and wasteful given the whales slow reproduction rate.

Answer 10

yes, it should be banned.

its wrong to the environment and to the whales.

Answer 11

Yes, Whales are an endangered species so killing them for pleasure or meat is just wrong.

One day theyll be no whales left and one of the earths most beautiful and majestic aqautic creatures will be no more.

any way hunting is sick, it is technically murder. the excuse that it isnt another human is ridiculous, it is still the death of an innocent living creature with as much a right to freedom and a life as we do.

Answer 12

No, as long as it is managed correctly it is no different from fishing.  Why should it be banned?

Answer 13

Wow!!!-- yes it is so inhumane the way and the methods  that they use to kill an intelligent animal. cruelty at its worst!

Answer 14

um , yes!

Answer 15

all hunting should be banned i think if the police catch someone they should let them free in a forest far away from a town city or village and let them be hunted by evil animals lets see how they like it

Answer 16

It already is in most of the world but there is strong pressure to allow resumption.

This is without doubt the main resource for the definitive answer.

http://www.iwcoffice.org/

Answer 17

YES!!!!

Humans can be so destructive...let's leave what is left alone for the moment so that the whales can recover from centuries of mass killing

we are such a stupid animal...look at what happened on Easter Island for a good example of how humans dont stop until they have destroyed EVERYTHING including, finally, their own existence

cant we realise that we cant go on forever greedily, mindlessly plundering the earth???

Answer 18

yes. It is immoral; you are killing an innocent whale for money. Most whales are indangered species and if we kill then m they will be all gone. Also, you dont NEED to kill a whale. Its not like we need them for oil for our lamps anymore.

Answer 19

yes! We should hunt japenese people instead, but only for research purposes though.

Answer 20

Any hunting should be banned. It's bullshit that we can kill animals for fun and for money, but we're not allowed to kill humans.

Answer 21

Yes, because it is simply not necessary. There is no product from the rendering of whale flesh that can not be readily synthesised. So the hunting of these intelligent mammals, even species not thought to be endangered, can not be justified.

Answer 22

yes all hunting should, its cruel and it interferes with naural evolution.

Answer 23

The animals that whales eat might have a different view, and what we have not done is a good study to determine whether there are enough of their food species. If reports of whales starving are true, it will not matter much.

I think we have already destroyed the last of the baleen (herbivorous) whales, so what we have left are subject to a declining fish stock world wide.

My feeling is that we may be best to hunt a few of them if they are unable to find enough prey to keep them healthy.

Answer 24

Well perhaps a temporary cessation - after all, we will need them when other sources of oil run out !!

Answer 25

all hunting should be banned

Answer 26

no if we kill all the whales then it wont matter if the ice caps melt, they take up alot of space

Answer 27

Absolutely yes, there aren't enough of them and they're fast becoming extinct.

Answer 28

Yes, they are becoming extinct and if they do become extinct we could mess up the ecosystem. That could become a large problem.