Spring reminds me of whales. This time of year in NZ, where I lived for the last two years as a diplomat, I had used to receive letters, phone calls, email messages and even visitors of the citizens who wanted to protest against the whaling by Japan.
Almost all NZ people support the anti-whaling activities conducted by the citizen’s group such as Green Peace or Sea Shepherd that bravely save the whales form the Japanese hunting.
There are two main reasons I have learned from the NZ protesters why we should not catch the whales.
First, it is because whale, as a whole, is one of the endangered species to be protected.
It is partially true. Among more than 80 species of whale in the world, there are some species endangered, such as Blue Whales and Bowhead Whales, but most of them are overabundant.
The whale stocks in the Antarctic Ocean were once artificially endangered because of the over hunting conducted by mainly English and Norway commercial whalers to get whale oil for lamp and cooking.
However, after 20 years of reduced whaling the ecosystem of this ocean is now on the course of recovery, and I believe it is important to monitor changes in its ecosystem and have scientific data to determine the sustainability of certain species of whales.
The second point is, the whales are very intelligent mammalian species like humankind, therefore they should not be eaten.
I was impressed that many New Zealanders do not want to consider whales as marine resources or food. In Japan, whales have been caught and utilized as food for more than 2 thousand years.
The culture of food and eating habits has been formed in the course of history under the specific environment of each country or each location even within a country. People in New Zealand have made use of many creatures such as cattle, sheep and deer, or like Australia kangaroos and rabbits. They eat Kangaroos in Australia. Hindus, other cultures have never had beef.
I don’t think it is appropriate to lightly condemn the behaviour of others as bad, barbarous or primitive, but rather there should be an attitude of respect for the different cultures and habits.
We celebrate whales’ day on every 9th day of the month. Let’s appreciate whale’s contribution to humanity and enjoy its meat on the day to keep one of our traditional customs.
Almost all NZ people support the anti-whaling activities conducted by the citizen’s group such as Green Peace or Sea Shepherd that bravely save the whales form the Japanese hunting.
There are two main reasons I have learned from the NZ protesters why we should not catch the whales.
First, it is because whale, as a whole, is one of the endangered species to be protected.
It is partially true. Among more than 80 species of whale in the world, there are some species endangered, such as Blue Whales and Bowhead Whales, but most of them are overabundant.
The whale stocks in the Antarctic Ocean were once artificially endangered because of the over hunting conducted by mainly English and Norway commercial whalers to get whale oil for lamp and cooking.
However, after 20 years of reduced whaling the ecosystem of this ocean is now on the course of recovery, and I believe it is important to monitor changes in its ecosystem and have scientific data to determine the sustainability of certain species of whales.
The second point is, the whales are very intelligent mammalian species like humankind, therefore they should not be eaten.
I was impressed that many New Zealanders do not want to consider whales as marine resources or food. In Japan, whales have been caught and utilized as food for more than 2 thousand years.
The culture of food and eating habits has been formed in the course of history under the specific environment of each country or each location even within a country. People in New Zealand have made use of many creatures such as cattle, sheep and deer, or like Australia kangaroos and rabbits. They eat Kangaroos in Australia. Hindus, other cultures have never had beef.
I don’t think it is appropriate to lightly condemn the behaviour of others as bad, barbarous or primitive, but rather there should be an attitude of respect for the different cultures and habits.
We celebrate whales’ day on every 9th day of the month. Let’s appreciate whale’s contribution to humanity and enjoy its meat on the day to keep one of our traditional customs.
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