By Caroline Zhang
<[email protected]>

Save the whales: There certainly have been many attempts to do so. Last year the United States led negotiations with Japan, Norway and Iceland to gradually end whaling over a 10 year period. An international halt on whaling has been in place since 1986.

However, many of these efforts have ended in stalemate or only had a limited impact. The negotiations in 2010 eventually failed to reach an agreement. In February, Japan did recall its whaling fleet and cut short the whaling season, but only after the environmental group Sea Shepard attacked several of its ships.

In response to these difficulties, many environmentalists have called for tougher laws on whalers. Despite the 1986 moratorium, the number of whales killed is still high (around 1,700 in 2009). Many whaling countries can find loopholes in the agreement, and claim the whales are for scientific research. There have been pushes to stop whaling outright, and immediately, as most people would agree that whaling is bad—bad for the whales, bad for ocean ecosystems and bad for the environment.

However, the shift away from whaling will by necessity be slow, as whaling provides an important economic livelihood in many countries, not to mention cultural significance. Ten years may not be enough time to divert resources to other areas. The country has a long history of whaling, back to the 17th century when the first English colonists arrived.

The United States can attribute part of its economic rise to power to Moby Dick. By the late 18th century, the whaling industry was prospering and growing, providing whale oil demanded by the new gas lamps and producing a variety of products from candles to ladies’ corsets. The United States dominated the industry. At its peak around 1846, 735 out of 900 whaling ships were American.

Considering the economic profits the United States earned, it is not hard to see why many nations may be reluctant to end whaling. At a fish market in Japan, one whale can yield $100,000 in revenue. Japan may not be too eager to give this money up.

Laws are not enough to keep whalers away from tempting profits. Whaling ships have shown they are able to get around various agreements banning the trade.

The United States and the international community should therefore concentrate efforts on providing realistic economic alternatives to whaling. It needs to try to change the attitude of whaling countries. For example, in Japan, whaling is not merely an economic interest. The freedom to go whaling is an assertion of the country’s independence from international interventions in its affairs. Whaling is patriotic. This attitude definitely won’t change overnight, and whaling can’t be expected to end overnight either.

There are signs that this change is not impossible. Most Japanese do not eat whale meat and many have lost interest in consuming it. (Though ironically, it was the United States that introduced eating whale, when General MacArthur saw it as a cheap source of protein after World War II.) This promising trend may lead to the death of whaling.

While it is important to reduce whaling through international laws, actually saving the whales will be a long process, and requires the changing of ideas and perception, and the provision of other economic opportunities.