Whaling

I have read the Q & A page on the Japanese Whaling Association. The association claims that because whaling is a Japanese tradition, it should continue. I feel that there is nothing wrong with whaling in itself, however, as Al Gore stated in An Inconvenient Truth:

old habits + old technology = predictable results

old habits + new technology = new, unpredictable results

If a country were to shoot nuclear missiles all over the place(as an example) as if they were just cannonballs, the results would be devastating. Similarly, with whaling, new technology ensures an extremely high kill rate compared to the older technology and techniques of the 8th century, when Japanese whaling was first recorded. During the 8th century, many boats would have to surround a whale to prevent it from moving out of range of their hand-thrown harpoons and then the crew would have to throw their harpoons, sometimes missing. However today, because of advanced technology such as high-powered harpoon launchers and explosive harpoons, both of which are standard equipment, kill rates are much higher. Also, instead of having a huge group of boats go after one single whale. One lone whaling ship can kill several whales on its own.

I conclude that whaling as a Japanese tradition can go on, but it should have the same kill rates as during the 8th century and the killing techniques used must be as humane as possible. A solution would be to have a maximum number of whales killed per year, whether their bodies are recovered or not and to have a team of International Whaling Commission members to verify so.

Japanese Whaling Association: http://www.whaling.jp/english/qa.html#04

Wikipedia on Japanese whaling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_whaling

Whaling by Japanese whaling ships

I believe that most people are aware of whaling by Japanese ships. The whaling is labelled as "research" by whaling companies when in fact, once a whale is killed, only its diet and birth date is analysed from the remains then the meat is packaged and sold. So much for "research". I believe that action should be taken on the whalers. However, violence should not be used unless it is very necessary. For example, a Japanese whaling ship that ignores warnings from a military vessel or aircraft can be fired upoun. Also, I do not think we should "flame" or slander other people because this will just aggravate the situation until there are insults flying all over the place and nobody is bothering to listen to anyone else anymore. The best course of action to take is probably to try to solve the problem diplomatically. Why bother trying desperately to find excuses to use destructive weapons while we don't have to?

I will continue to investigate this topic. My sincere apologies if I jumped to conclusions. Please comment. Thanks!

Whaling: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1686486,00.html

The Start

This is the start of my blog. It will contain discussions on global issues from my school. I am currently studying at a secondary school in Singapore. However, I am not permitted to divuldge the identity of this school.

Happy reading! Please comment on the issues that I write about. Thanks.