Jiang 1

Yunhan Jiang

Greg McClure

WR 39C

3/17/2019

The Endangered Giant

Introduction

In the Hebrew Bible, there is a giant sea monster which is known as a powerful and cruel

enemy of gods. It is called Leviathan (Cirlot, 1971). Having a giant body and the power of

apocalypse, Leviathan is often compared to other great monsters in other mythologies or tales.

Parallels to Vritra1 in ancient India region or Jormungandr2 in Norse mythology, Leviathan is

also noted as a destined enemy of the god Hadad. Later scholars interpret Leviathan as referring

to huge, brutal and mysterious aquatic animals (Gesenius, 1859). As time flies, in modern era

the name “Leviathan” used by novelists and poets becomes a term for large sea animals, usually

whales, in general.

However, although having such a deterrent nickname, whales are warm and kind animals,

and are facing a fatal threat from human -- commercial whaling. According to EIA International,

at around the middle of 19th century, modern era of commercial had begun. In short sixty years,

1 A serpent or dragon which is opposite to god Indra, and is finally killed by him (Gopal, 1990).
2 A sea serpent, the archenemy of the Norse Gods (Simek, 1993).
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the stock of many whale species suffered a sudden decrease. Data given by International

Whaling Commission (2019) expose that from 1920s to 1940s, several species such as blue

whale, humpback whale and minke whale were heavily exploited by industrial whaling and

commercial whaling. Although society realized that whales were over-exploited, and began to

regulate whalers and whaling industries, whales were already reduced to only a very small

percentage of their original population size. As a result, International Whaling Commission --

the most official whaling association in the world -- posted several whaling prohibitions on

specific species, such as fin whale and blue whale. In spite of this, whaling also happened

annually, and whaling cannot be completely controlled only by setting policies, as there are

countries which already taste tremendous economic profit and industrial benefits from whaling,

and does not want to stop even a little bit. Whaling problem should be taken serious

consideration, and there has to be a more powerful organization to take charge of whaling

problem. Moreover, normal people also should reject whaling and other whale products.

The seriousness

While talking about commercial whaling, normal people will firstly come up with

identifications such as “extremely inhumane” or “containing several problems”. As whales have

giant bodies, they are not able to die easily during the whaling process, because the way to kill a

whale quickly at sea does not exist. As those pierced wounds keep contacting with salty sea

water, nearly every whale dies in extremely pain. According to Mann’s (2000) research, whales

protect their important and fragile organs by growing thick skins and fat, thus it is impossible to
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destroy those organs from outside to decrease the pain. Whales also have large amount of blood,

nearly fourteen thousand pounds (6400kg), so killing them through bleeding is also ridiculous.

Moreover, for preventing whales from struggling, whalers even use grenade harpoons.

Fig 1. Japanese whaling. Retrieved from:

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/whales_last_push/

The cruelty of whaling does not only shows up in whaling process, but also happens in

ruining whale’s habitats. Roman (2016) gives an example that whales sometimes do physical

contacts with other individuals, and the way they identify each other is sound. Thus, whaling

ships broadcast sounds to attract whales. Most of the whales die under those cruel tools, and

there are some survivors -- they escape because they get too close to ships, and be deeply shaved

by the high-speed screw propellers. Actually, Roman (2016) mentions that not every whale has
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the luck to survive from such serious injury, many of them are killed because their vertebra are

completely destroyed. For those survivors, however, have no choice but carry scary and

disgusting scars in the rest of their life. Injured parts cannot recover because whales live at sea,

and sea water stimulate those wounds, causing extreme pain to whales. Far more than that,

whales having ugly “marks” on their backs may be isolated by their crews. Whaling activity

threats whales’ life and habits seriously while it does zero contribution to ecosystems under

water. We human who have sympathy should oppose whaling together, and make such bloody

commercial activity abandoned.

Although whaling starts to be controlled while more people notice how cruel it is, there are

countries which deny to obey those policies, especially Iceland, Norway, and other whaling

countries in Europe, and Japan in Asia. More than 40,000 whales were killed by the three

countries since 1986, and several evidences expose that these countries continue in doing

whaling activities, while whaling was already controlled by IWC. Denyer (2018), the bureau

chief in Tokyo of The Washington Post, exposes Japan once announced to make a breakaway

from IWC at the end of June, 2018, and forcefully restarted commercial whaling around July.

While in IWC, Japan also found several ways to keep whaling. According to Arne (2013),

“Japan has been hunting whales for the past thirty years under a scientific programme. Critics

say the practice is a cover for what actually amounts to commercial whaling.” Arne is not the

only one who points out the irrationality in Japan’s whaling process. Junko Sakuma, a Japanese

researcher who has already spent more than 10 years in Japan’s whaling industries for study,
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also has similar thought. “There is no benefit to Japan from whaling, but nobody knows how to

quit.” In an interview at Tsukiji fish market, the worldwide biggest fish market known for its

fresh tuna sale, Junko told the journalist, “If whale meat faces a shortage, the price should soar.

But things does not happen, because most Japanese people nowadays do not consume whale

products, including whale meat.” She adds, “Consumption has been falling for years. Even when

whale meat becomes harder to buy, the price has no chance to increase.” Junko’s research allows

the world to know that the average consumption of whale meat per Japanese person was less

than thirty gram in 2015 (BBC, Japan and the Whale).

The reason why Japan does not want to give up commercial whaling -- even when the

demands of whale product decrease obviously -- is childish and irresponsible. A response given

by Japanese government is “Whaling has already become a part of Japanese culture and history”.

In their words, whalers keep whaling for decades, and already turn whaling activity into part of

their life. Japan never accepts foreigner’s criticism in what they can eat and what they cannot.

There is a famous conversation between Japanese official and Hayes (2016), a BBC journalist:

“Japanese people never eat rabbits, but we don’t tell British people that they shouldn’t.” Facing

such ridiculous answer, Hayes replies that rabbits are not in endangered species list. In another

word, commercial whaling has already joined the global economy, and in some countries it

becomes a tradition. To stop whaling in short term is not realistic, and we have to set our hope in

long term.

Damage to the environment

If we allow commercial whaling to continue, and never try to prevent whaling countries,

whaling activity will seriously ruin marine ecosystems and natural environment. Whales, as the

biggest species in the world, have ability and enough power to influence the nature. They act as

a part of the ecosystems, and do uncountable contributions to the wild. Mann (2000) lists several

aspects of how and why whale’s habits are functional. By mentioning about whale, the most

famous habit been noticed by people should be the “whale pump”. Whale pump is the behavior

whales use to breath. While pumping out the water inside their bodies, whales also pump out

nutrients such as iron element and nitrogen. Those nutrients then float on the surface of oceans,

and feed animals living nearby, such as fishes and sea birds. Another helpful activity mentioned

by Donovan (2008) is the seabed digging process. Gray and humpback whales usually feed

themselves at seabed’s depth, and when they swim pass by, they disturb the soils and cause

those substantial nutrients to be exposed. Such sediments are valuable nourishment to abyssal

creatures. There are activities far more than those two, and a lot of numbers of species survive

depending on whale activities. If commercial whaling exacerbates, it will cause a food shortage

to marine ecosystems and finally leads abyssal creatures to extinguish.

What’s more, a poetic phenomenon happening in marine ecosystem is called “whale fall”.

When a whale dies, another story has just begun. The body falls to seabed and eternally lies. It

contains enormous nutrients, and is able to serve food to abyssal animals in order to create a

brand-new small life ecosystem. There are significant amounts of carbon and massive organic

enrichment contained in the corpse, and construct the barren and impoverished seabed into
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paradise of microorganisms. In some articles, whale fall is described as “the last fondness

whales give to the nature”, how romantic. Mann (2000) proofs, that if no whale fall exists,

seabeds will keep barren and no life will be able to survive. Back to the present, commercial

whaling causes a large number of whales been killed cruelly on land, which means less whale

falls are able to be created. Commercial whaling indirectly endangers life in abyssal zone.

The support of policy

The IWC was established in 1946 as the global authority on cetaceans, and continues to lead

cetacean research and conservation as well as regulation of whaling. According to the data given

on the website of IWC, more than 2.9 million of whales were killed in the 20th century.

Realizing how commercial whaling was dangerous, the IWC announced a moratorium on

commercial whaling, which was the first important step about whale protecting. After the policy

started in 1986, the rate of whales exploited by commercial whaling decreased significantly --

only around 40 thousand of whales were killed since 1986 (EIA International). However,

although the number decreased, it was still a huge loss of whale stocks. Life should not be

counted only by numbers. Till now, the IWC keeps on working actively on holding

whale-protecting activities and protecting whales from illegal whaling. Countries began to join

the IWC from the beginning of 21st century, and the IWC has an archive storage on its website,

recording every commission meeting document which comes up annually, such as “IWC63 |

Jersey 2011”, “IWC64 | Panama 2012” and “IWC67 | Brazil 2018” (IWC: Digital Asset

Management).
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Fig 2. Documents stored in the IWC. Retrieved from:

https://iwc.int/documents

Inside those documents, there are contents about the status of whale species, the feasible

solutions of whale protecting to different countries, the management and regulation about

aboriginal whaling and commercial whaling, general information and reports, even the most

acceptable whale killing methods. By paying so much attention on whales and limiting whaling,

human society successfully make the curve of whale populations start to rise. For example,

humpback whales had a rate of increase around 9% from 1984 to 2007, and other whale species

also have the similar increasing number.

Not only the IWC association focuses on whales, but also the America Congress release

laws and legislation for protecting the endangered species. According to Congress.gov, there are

several legislation relate to cetaceans and marine animals been released or renewed annually.

The H.R.6060 - Save Right Whales Act is one of the most powerful cetacean protecting

legislation. It provides several specific methods and solutions on protecting the North Atlantic

right whale. Its main purpose is to rebuild healthy populations of those species, to assist the
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conservation of whale, and to minimize the conflicts between whales and human.

Societies are fighting

We all understand that profit pushes commercial activities, so the most direct way to stop

commercial whaling is to stop supporting whale products. There are lamp oil, candles and soaps

which are made from sperm oil and whale oil, whale meat for human consumption and animal

feed, fertilizer made from whale bones, and strings on tennis rackets which are made from

tendons (KCPC 2001). In fact, there are plenty of alternatives which have better quality and

lower price compare to those whale products. Advocating the idea of anti-whaling and

anti-whale products can be an effective way to reduce whaling activities. According to an article

from Human Society International (HSI), whales are kinds of species which are easily affected

by environmental containment. While eating, whales absorb those organochlorines3 and heavy

metals such as mercury which float on the top of the oceans and are contained by plankton. If

people consume whale meat, chemicals adjust on whale meat will also be absorbed by people

and can cause serious health problems. By exposing such fatal facts, anti-whaling activities run

actively and effectively. Even in one of the biggest whaling countries, Japan, there are more than

four thousand supermarkets which already refuse to sell whale and dolphin products.

3 Such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and dioxin

Fig 3. People in anti-whaling activity. Retrieved from:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35397749

At least 85% of Japanese citizens strongly oppose their government to use money from

taxpayers to build new whaling ships (EIA International).

Anti-whaling activities are held not only in Japan, but also in Northern Europe whaling

countries such as Iceland and Finland. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare

(IFAW), they started a joint project with the Association of Icelandic Whale Watchers (IceWhale)

in the summer of 2010. The project is called “Meet Us Don’t Eat Us”, and is held in Reykjavík4

annually. Whale friendly restaurants also began to build around the beginning of 21st century in

Northern European countries such as Iceland and Norway. What’s more, volunteers use media to

4 The capital and largest city of Iceland

make several scientific videos to introduce the important role of whales in nature. In

Smithsonian Ocean website, there is a short video introducing the whale fall and its functions.

Fig 4. A screenshot from the video “Life After Whale”. Retrieved from:

https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/marine-mammals/life-after-whale-whale-falls

The producer uses paper material to represent the whale fall and life on it. The style is also

acceptable and attractive to kids, helping them to learn the world earlier and evokes their

responsibilities to protect the nature. In 2017, more than 80% of unsold whale meat in Norway

were abandoned by markets and companies, because whale meat became hard to sell (EIA

International). In Iceland, only 1% of citizens eat whale meat regularly, and at least 34% of

Icelander actively and strongly oppose commercial whaling, which number is nearly doubled

comparing to the year 2013.

Citation

Cirlot, Juan Eduardo. A Dictionary of Symbols (2nd ed.). Dorset Press, 1971.

Gopal, Madan. K.S. Gautam, ed. India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of

Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1990.

Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer, 1993.

Gesenius, Wilhelm, and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles. “Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old

Testament”. S. Bagster, 1859.

“Commercial Whaling: Unsustainable, Inhumane, Unnecessary.” EIA International,

eia-international.org/reports-mm/keeptheban/

“Status of Whales.” IWC | International Whaling Commission, iwc.int/home.

Roman, Joe (2006-05-01). Whale. Reaktion Books. p. 24. ISBN 9781861895059. Retrieved 25

March 2017.

Mann, Janet, et al. Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales. University of

Chicago Press, 2000.

Wingfield-Hayes, Rupert. “Japan and the Whale.” BBC News, BBC, 8 Feb. 2016,

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35397749.

Kalland, Arne, and Brian Moeran. Japanese Whaling: End of an Era? Routledge, 2013.

“Whale Products.” KCPC Education Resource Web Site: 9.2.3 Molar Heat of Combustion, 2001,
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discovery.kcpc.usyd.edu.au/9.5.1/9.5.1_whale.html.

“Human Health Concerns of Whale Meat.” Humane Society International, 26 July 2002,

www.hsi.org/issues/whaling/facts/human_health_concerns_of_whale_meat.html.

Denyer, Simon, and Akiko Kashiwagi. “Japan to Leave International Whaling Commission,

Resume Commercial Hunting.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 26 Dec. 2018,

www.washingtonpost.com/world/japan-to-leave-international-whaling-commission-resume-

commercial-hunt/2018/12/26/2c32fb20-08c9-11e9-892d-3373d7422f60_story.html?noredire

ct=on&utm_term=.84c36d4251af.

Donovan, Greg (2008).

"Whaling". Microsoft Encarta.

“Smithsonian Ocean.” Ocean Portal | Smithsonian, Smithsonian's National Museum of

Natural History, 22 May 2018,

ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/marine-mammals/life-after-whale-whale-falls.

“Featured Collections.” IWC: Digital Asset Management, archive.iwc.int/pages/themes.php.

“Library of Congress.” Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/.