There was one time while I was in Japan when the topic of whale hunting came up. It was brought up by a pair of Australian tourists. The thought of hunting whales horrified them. Another person mentioned that he had eaten kangaroo while in Australia. The two Australians said yes you can eat Kangaroo and they weren't against, this suprised the Japanese woman that was there. Both here and I asked "If you can eat Kangaroo, a wild animal that is hunted, why can't you eat whale, another wild animal that is hunted?" Their answer was "It's just different."
That is the fundamental argument for most ant-whaling people. Most aren't vegan or vegetarian but for some reason whales are sacred and shouldn't be killed. In the US this extends to all marine mammals. There is an overpopulation problem of California sea lions along the Oregon and Southern Washington. However, it is extremely difficult to do anything about because in the US all marine mammals are considered endangered by statute and can only be moved or culled with a court order.
The US has had its own problems with whaling. Within the last few years the Makah tribe of Northwest Washington has resumed hunting of the Pacific Gray Whale, which like the Southern Minke Whale is not an endangered or threatened species. However, there have been several court challenges to the hunt even though it is allowed under the International Whaling Commisions ban on commercial whaling and guaranteed by treaty between the Makah and US government.
Personally, I have no problem with the hunting of any animal provided you do it at a sustainable level. And the Japanese are certainly doing that. For the last 20 years they have killed approximately 900 Minke whales every year. This is out of a population that is currently estimated at 380,000 or 660,000 depending on the methodology. I would actually support an increase in the number killed in order to show that the sustainable kill is higher and comercial whaling of this specied could resume with a reasonable quota. This would be much the same as how other species of animal are managed and this is probably the real goal of the research even though the research they have published doesn't appear to have hinted at this.
くじら は おいしい。
