Japan To Join United States And Canada In Expression of Culture: Killing Whales
The Japanese have authorized the harvest of whales. This action, along with Japanese use of the cultural-tradition defense, has been attacked by many, including Greenpeace. The problem with these attacks is the total lack of consistency. Inconsistency is noting new for Greenpeace, considering the group’s co-founder resigned because of Greenpeace’s stance against nuclear energy. For example, Greenpeace lists the whaling issues to include: Norwegian, Icelandic, and Japanese whaling. Conspicuously absent from this list of condemnation is the killing of whales by aboriginal people.
Bowhead whale being slaughtered in Barrow, Alaska
Aboriginal whaling is the killing of whales by groups that have a tradition of whaling. These groups are from the following countries (numbers represent the number of whales killed each year): Greenland (170), United States (56), Russia (140), Canadian (130), Caribbean (400), and Indonesia (56). The species killed by these groups include, Gray, Fin, Minke, Humpback, and Bowhead.
If the argument against whaling is the scarcity of whales and the possible loss of species, the identity and cultural background of the hunter is irrelevant. Many of the attacks on whaling focus on the intelligence of the animals and the cruelty of their death. For example a post in the Greenpeace blog Defending Our Oceans, details the harvesting of a whale by the Japanese ship Kyo Maru,
Our eyes and hearts could not believe what we were seeing as the whale repeatedly lunged out of the water a few metres (sic) in front of our inflatable. She was trying to swim away and stay on the surface to breathe but the harpoon and vicious wound in her side was pulling her down. For a moment when she looked straight at us, I saw straight into and through her eyes and could see her mouth gaping open appearing to let out a sound. She looked at us with immense suffering and fear and I knew that she was asking; “Why is this happening? Please help me.”
It took two gunshots to her head from a crewmember onboard the hunter ship before she succumbed. The moment was filmed on camera forever and in our minds for a very long time - and I truly hope that no one ever has to view it. The merciless, violent brutality of this whale hunting is beyond comprehension. For the rest of the day I have been fighting back tears and afraid to sleep as then the silence will bring back the visual reality of this morning’s horror.
By comparison to the killing of whales by the Lamalera (people living on Lembata Island, Indonesia), the methods used by the Japanese are very humane. The Japanese use a harpoon with a grenade that severs major nerves and blood vessels in the whale and causes rapid death, which happens instantaneously or could take up to 2 minutes. By way of comparison, the method used by the Lamelera lasts,
for more than six hours, their hands gripping traditional duri flensing knives, to subdue the whale . . . far cry from the whaling fleets of Japan, whose factory boats and grenade harpoons wreak slaughter on an industrial scale. But with disappearing whale stocks and the availability of more sophisticated harpoon technology, one wonders how long this remarkable tradition will continue.
Remarkable tradition? Six hours of suffering while fishermen kill the whale with their bare hands. If Nicole from Greenpeace is correct, these whales must be saying “Why is this happening, if you are going to kill me just get it over with, don’t stab at me for hours.” It is, however, unlikely that the whales are thinking anything of the sort, nor are they taking much solace in the fact that they are being killed by aboriginal people. Death is death from the whales point of view.
Whaling by indigenous peoples is defended on the grounds of tradition and subsistence. In Barrow, Alaska, 25 whales are harvested each year on the basis that the “whale hunt plays a vital role in the lives of the Inuit, making up over half the meat that they eat.” According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are 1,000 white citizens and 46 Black or African American citizens in Barrow, out of a total population of 4,581. What do these people eat? How are they able to survive without whale flesh? Evidently they have found a way.
The morality, and legality, of whaling should not depend of the size of the whaler’s ship or the sophistication of the weapon used. Whaling is either acceptable or not, make the decision and remain consistent.
yojoe out
Filed under: Animal Rights, Business, Environment, Food, Greenpeace, Political Commentary, Politics, Science
All I know is that in the first picture, that whale looks delicious.
I lived with the Inupiaq people of the North Slope of Alaska for almost a year. Most of the people up there keep their culture alive through the methods that have helped them survive for thousands of years. As a new teacher to the North Slope we were shown videos about the hunting traditions, specifically the whale hunting. They speak about a whale offering itself to the hunters. They do not take more than they can use either. In Barrow, Alaska the whale meat is not just for their community. I was stationed in a town that was 250 miles southeast of Barrow. Some of the Inupiaq there traded caribou for whale meat. This gave them a more diverse food intake during the long winter. Some of these people would not have survived the long winter without the food. The cultural significance of the hunting and sharing is what makes these people who they are. Americans already took so much away from them through sickness and religion. They are peaceful people that want to remember the ways of their ancestors. Leave them alone.
Serena - Thank you for sharing your experience. But you miss the point. If the whales are endangered, it does not matter why they are killed or how important this is to a culture. If the animal is endangered, it is endangered. This classification does not depend on who wants to kill the animal. The fact that the Inuit do not take more than they can use, is noble and interesting, but does not protect the animal from death. As for the food argument, it does not hold water. How do the non-Inuit people of Barrow, AK. survive? And, why not apply your argument to the people of Japan?
yojoe
I have lived in Barrow for years, and I am not of Inupiat descent. I agree with Serena. People have hunted this animal for centuries. The entire culture, whose language is slowly being lost, and who struggles to keep culture alive and families together to experience a dying heritage, is dependent upon the whale. Most families eat muktuk year round and it supplies many dietary needs such as vitamin C and warmth from the extreme cold. The human body works harder to digest muktuk, so it raises the body’s temperature.
Taking the whales away would kill this community. All their history, tradition, close connection with their families, sense of working together as a community, songs, quality of life would be sucked out of them. I can honestly say that they would have nothing. Many would feel despair and have the sense that there would be nothing left to live for. So you tell me what is more important, the preservation of animals or the preservation of people? It is a sad day for this generation to say that animals lives are more valuable than the people they sustain.
Yes, many of us non-Inupiats eat muktuk, too. Gatherings occur during the whaling season to publicly thank the Lord for the harvest, and portions are shared with EVERYONE in the community, without discriminating. I feel sad and angry that those who have no idea what living in the Arctic is like want to have a say how things are done here.
Stay in your comfy homes, drive your sassy sports cars, compare your designer clothes, put down the little man while your at it, and keep up with the Jones’s. Shop at whatever store you like, eat fruits and veggies that are not on their way out, eat a box of cereal that doesn’t cost you $10, go to your pharmacy and have unlimited choices in medicines, full and quality healthcare, eating your fast food choices from fast food restaurants, being glad it isn’t you who suffers the extreme sting of winter 60, 70, 80 degrees below zero while it lasts, comfortable without polar bears a short distance from your town, and continue to complain about the way of life thousands of miles away.
To me, people have far more value than animals. I pray you understand one day.
imagine doing this to your children, family, relative and love ones.
are we still human?
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE
My husband is Inupiaq as are my children. We live a partialy subsistance life style because of the prices of EVERYTHING up here. For those of you whom believe the Bowhead whales are being endangered by the Inupiaq way of life, read “Conversations with Harry Brower Sr.” and research the Internation Whaling Commision.
Further more, are we harming the feelings of lettuce also? Maybe we should quit eating everything that is living because it will suffer.
My husband is a whaling Co-Captain and when he shoots the whale that is giving its life for our family, he tries his best to only have to shoot once. We do not waste ANYTHING! Everything from the whale is eaten or used for artwork, or put at the Point of Barrow for the ENDAGERED Polar Bears to eat.
God Bless you all the wish we would stop!
emily u r crazy wat u just said tells me u hate animals cause ur leting them be grusomly slautered if u think its worth killing animals 2 keep ur physco culture alive then fine but i hope u come back as a whale and r killed so u can feel the pain and torture theese poor animals go through just think about it wat if u were the whale do u think its fair that ur being grousemley slaughtered so some idiots can kill u off!!! when u agree to this stuff ur agreing to murder so ur pretty much a killer by suporting this and those people can live without whale!!! and u now animals have rights 2 just because they cant speek doesnt mean they r different they feel pain!!! so all i can say is that ur a killer i hope u wont beable to sleep tonight!!!
YOU ARE SO SICK I CAN NOT BELIVE YOU DO THAT TO THESE WHALES HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF I CAME AND FIRST CHASED YOU GOING IN FRONT OF MY BOAT AND THEN STUCK A HARPOON IN YOU!
They still look delicious. I wonder if Whales make good jerkey?
I would like to see how long you people, who are so against the killing of whales, lasted in an arctic winter with nothing to eat. I’m sure your attitudes would change rather quickly in the face of starvation and hypothermia.