Whales are between the most brilliant marine mammals on earth. The blue whale is the largest animal to ever exist. In spite of this history, industrial whaling has left the whale varieties incredibly endangered. Thankfully, whaling has actually been ended in numerous nations, but still exists in some. The impact of this continued whaling endangers the existence of the animals, and if not stopped, may wipe out whales.
The negative influence humans have actually had on whales stems from the commercial hunting for meat and perfume compounds. More than 2 million whales were killed in the early 20th century. By the middle of the 20th century, whales were seriously endangered and numbers were reduced. In 1986 the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling, but Japan continues to ignore this ban. Once the ban was in place, Japan went on to hunt whales utilizing a loophole that provides for scientific investigation. The meat from these hunts is sold in shops and restaurants. Though Japan is skirting the guidelines, and it is frowned upon by the IWC, the IWC still permits it.
Sea Shepherd is an business that says Japan is in violation of the IWC rules on all commercial whaling. They point out that the Eastern public does not support commercial whale hunting, however all the major political parties do. Whale meat supposedly caught for “research reasons” ends up in the popular Tsukiji fish market, Ocean Shepherd points out. They investigate this embezzlement of whale meat on a routine basis and try to prevent whaling in the high seas as it is happening.
Marine Shepherd has motorboats and companies and go out to intervene throughout whale hunts. This is a unsafe and life-threatening undertaking for Marine Shepherd’s companies, but they go on to go to save the whales from slaughter. As recently as 2010, 3 Marine Shepherd ships intervened
against unlawful whaling activities and one boat was purposely rammed and sunk by the Oriental. When the captain attempted to serve an invoice upon the Oriental for his sunken motorboat, he was taken to a Oriental prison. The Sea Shepherd’s continuing to be companies were not deterred and followed the Eastern fleets for 3 weeks, and not one solitary whale was eradicated throughout that time.
The illegal whale hunts have not stopped. More requires to be done to get rid of whaling before the species is absolutely reduced. Ocean Shepherd is dedicated to this fight. Visit Sea Shepherd to learn more.
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