Impacts of Whaling:
- Atmosphere: Whale faeces stimulates phytoplankton which clears the air from carbon, therefore making a cleaner atmosphere. Whaling will deplete the number of whales which means less whale faeces => less phytoplankton => worse air
- Economy: Whale watching is a huge business and contributes billions of dollars to the countries economy. Every year millions of people spend their money to watch these majestic creatures in their own environment and leap into the air. This spending has led to increased economic growth and stimulation in both developing and wealthy countries. Continued whaling will make whales a lot rarer and harder to spot. This would be devastating for the whale watching companies and therefore economy.
- Humanity: Whaling affects people by going against some people ethics and causes disapproval by many. It also messes up the ecosystem which comes around and hurts us as well through the increased carbon in the air contributing to global warming and other atmospheric problems. Fish will disappear which means less food for us and other creatures.
- Ocean: The ocean consists of so much life which all rely on each other and to sustain itself and run smoothly and flow healthily. If any of the creatures get taken out of the system the whole chain will fall apart. Whales the largest mammal of the seas play a major role in this community What they eat, how their body is used at death, their excrement etc are vital to to the oceans.
- Flora/Fauna: The flora and fauna are part of the ecosystem so if that is the affected, so is the flora/fauna. Changing atmosphere will affect all plant and animal life, changing the environment and the food system of the lack of whales will be out of balance with beyond normal number of species.
All these problems are linked with each other. For example, if whaling continued at a unsustainable rate, then the Ocean ecosystem would break down due to the under-population of whales. However that would not be the only issue as less whales would mean less whale faeces that stimulate phytoplankton to clear the carbon from our atmosphere, meaning that our atmosphere will become more polluted. Over many years, this will then lead to other issues such as contributing to climate change. Other examples include the loss of flora and fauna due to the changing atmosphere and environment as well as affecting us as humans. This is because atmospheric conditions will greatly affect our lives as while the act of whaling will be going against some people's ethics. At the same time whaling would also affect our economy as it will lead to a decrease in our tourism industry since less whales are to be spot for businesses such as whale watching.
- Atmosphere: Whale faeces stimulates phytoplankton which clears the air from carbon, therefore making a cleaner atmosphere. Whaling will deplete the number of whales which means less whale faeces => less phytoplankton => worse air
- Economy: Whale watching is a huge business and contributes billions of dollars to the countries economy. Every year millions of people spend their money to watch these majestic creatures in their own environment and leap into the air. This spending has led to increased economic growth and stimulation in both developing and wealthy countries. Continued whaling will make whales a lot rarer and harder to spot. This would be devastating for the whale watching companies and therefore economy.
- Humanity: Whaling affects people by going against some people ethics and causes disapproval by many. It also messes up the ecosystem which comes around and hurts us as well through the increased carbon in the air contributing to global warming and other atmospheric problems. Fish will disappear which means less food for us and other creatures.
- Ocean: The ocean consists of so much life which all rely on each other and to sustain itself and run smoothly and flow healthily. If any of the creatures get taken out of the system the whole chain will fall apart. Whales the largest mammal of the seas play a major role in this community What they eat, how their body is used at death, their excrement etc are vital to to the oceans.
- Flora/Fauna: The flora and fauna are part of the ecosystem so if that is the affected, so is the flora/fauna. Changing atmosphere will affect all plant and animal life, changing the environment and the food system of the lack of whales will be out of balance with beyond normal number of species.
All these problems are linked with each other. For example, if whaling continued at a unsustainable rate, then the Ocean ecosystem would break down due to the under-population of whales. However that would not be the only issue as less whales would mean less whale faeces that stimulate phytoplankton to clear the carbon from our atmosphere, meaning that our atmosphere will become more polluted. Over many years, this will then lead to other issues such as contributing to climate change. Other examples include the loss of flora and fauna due to the changing atmosphere and environment as well as affecting us as humans. This is because atmospheric conditions will greatly affect our lives as while the act of whaling will be going against some people's ethics. At the same time whaling would also affect our economy as it will lead to a decrease in our tourism industry since less whales are to be spot for businesses such as whale watching.
Actions taken against Whaling
Whaling has drastically reduced the number of whales and because of that, in recent years there has been many campaigns by various groups such as sea-shepherd and Greenpeace to prevent major commercial whalers like Japan, Norway and Iceland from whaling. Campaigns include shutting down whaling fleets and scuttling illegal whaling vessels. A very effective action taken was the moratorium (ban of whaling) which helped the humpback and right whale rebound and recover from vulnerable to least concern. Randall Reaves, the leader of the IUCN assessment quoted "This is a great conservation success and clearly shows what needs to be done to ensure these ocean giants survive."
WWF and IWC have both worked together to try and enforce sustainable whaling and reducing the threat to whales why persuading countries such as Iceland to end its commercial whaling or at least to stop killing the endangered species. They are still in defiance of the whaling ban but have taken some action such as not resuming to continue hunting the endangered fin whales.
Sea Shepherd is known well for their anti-whaling efforts, acting upon the statement that Japanese are whaling illegally against the moratorium set in 1986 and that they are whaling for commercial reasons rather than scientific. Interfering techniques include ramming the vessels, throwing smoke canisters on board the ship and using nylon rope to disable the propellers. These are just mere distractions though and will only annoy the whalers and some say this will create political strife between the countries and that it is adding fuel to the fire but Sea Shepherd boasts that their efforts have resulted in the expeditions being 500 whales short in 2007 and 305 short in 2008. The organisation admit that their actions are rather violent and do endanger lives but the whales lives mean more and no crew member is allowed on board unless you're willing to risk your life for a whale.
WWF and IWC have both worked together to try and enforce sustainable whaling and reducing the threat to whales why persuading countries such as Iceland to end its commercial whaling or at least to stop killing the endangered species. They are still in defiance of the whaling ban but have taken some action such as not resuming to continue hunting the endangered fin whales.
Sea Shepherd is known well for their anti-whaling efforts, acting upon the statement that Japanese are whaling illegally against the moratorium set in 1986 and that they are whaling for commercial reasons rather than scientific. Interfering techniques include ramming the vessels, throwing smoke canisters on board the ship and using nylon rope to disable the propellers. These are just mere distractions though and will only annoy the whalers and some say this will create political strife between the countries and that it is adding fuel to the fire but Sea Shepherd boasts that their efforts have resulted in the expeditions being 500 whales short in 2007 and 305 short in 2008. The organisation admit that their actions are rather violent and do endanger lives but the whales lives mean more and no crew member is allowed on board unless you're willing to risk your life for a whale.
Solution we propose towards Whaling
The best solution to stop whaling is educating the population about the issue and raising awareness about whaling and its negative effects. Countries should tell the people how the ecosystem and environment are affected by whaling so more people would understand and know about the problem and take action. The changed attitude to eating whale will be very effective as younger generations are less likely to eat whale and in the long term, the whaling countries' people will refuse to eat the meat. The mixture of the existing political pressure and private organisations with the international supported education on anti-whaling will crumble the whaling industry and as they are already fighting to keep it alive. The consumption of whale meat will decline as people realize the consequences of whaling and the companies will start losing profit as running the industry is already costly enough as it is. So education would be the best solution to whaling around the world and have the most promising results.