Threatened Whales

 The Inuit specialise in the captures of marine animals since the majority of animals are found in the sea in Greenland. The Inuit’s hunting culture keeps them alive during the winter. One of the animals they hunted in the water are types of whales. The whales that they hunt would provide them with sometimes 50 tonnes of meat. The culture of hunting bowhead whales still persist in some regions and the Inuit’s fight for their right to hunt at least one bowhead whale a year. They strongly believe that it is their cultural tradition and that it feels right for them to hunt whales.

 Governments play an important part in the act of whaling. The governments are involved in the International Whaling Commission.  The countries that are trying to put a full ban on whaling are being told that they are still doing nothing from anti whaling organisations. A survey from Greenpeace in Japan showed that 92% of the Japanese public did not know that their government is killing 900 whales some of which are endangered species. The Japanese government also does a so-called scientific research and then hunts for whales. The future of whaling depends on the powerful anti-whaling governments that are the US, Germany, the UK and Australia.

Greenpeace recommends many solutions to help ban whaling such as the IWC to be brought to democratic control from whale friendly countries. The Japanese to stop their “scientific” annual whale hunt. To help increase whale population they need to make sanctuaries to protect and breed the whales. These solutions are not fair to everyone such as the Japanese, because they say that it is their custom and tradition to eat and hunt whales. Other suggestions are to ban massive commercial whaling and let them have a limit to how many whales they hunt. This would be fair to anti whaling groups and Japanese Whaling.

Whaling is a problem to all of us, we do not want whales to become extinct. Greenpeace will always be an anti whaling organisation and will always be trying to save the whales. JWA argue that Japanese cultural history supports a resumption of commercial whaling. The Inuit’s also have a strong culture of whaling and use it to