WHALING HISTORY AS A SYMBOL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSES (original) (raw)

Nature is fragile in the face of men. Despite their paltry size, men can endanger entire species of whales, including the blue whale, the largest creature that has ever existed. Throughout centuries, a whole whaling technology was developed in order to kill, cut and process whales as profitably as possible. Basque, Dutch, Scandinavian, Japanese and American whalers, among others, crossed the seas and risked their lives in the name of profit and at the expense of entire ecosystems. If commerce created and maintained whaling, it also generated its regularisation; the second half of the 20th century saw numerous debates between pro and anti-whaling nations as well as a certain number of regulations as the 1986 International Whaling Convention (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling. Unfortunately, despite the opprobrium of international public opinion against whaling and the growing political pressure against whaling nations, whales are still legally and illegally hunted nowadays. The case of Japan is particularly interesting because it shows the tensions between the economic, cultural and diplomatic factors related to whaling as well as the lack of power of the international organisations to effectively control the number of catches and to build compliance with the rules established to preserve the great marine mammals’ population. This essay will trace the history of whaling from the start of commercial whaling to these days, highlighting its cultural and legal aspects in order to show how the whaling controversy is highly representative of every environmental issue the world has to face. I will relate the history of whaling focusing on modern whaling, the technological development that permitted the near extinction of several species and the economic basis, then I will expose the late 20th-century wake-up call and its legal outcomes. Finally, I will discuss the effectivity of the anti-whaling policy by focusing on the current situation in Japan, try and make suggestions for the future of anti-whaling organisations and show the symbolic significance of the whaling issue.