According to BBC news, a Japanese fleet has instructions to kill 1,000 whales, including 50 humpbacks, which have been spared from hunting since the 1960s. A 2003 study in Science estimated there used to 240,000 humpbacks in the North Atlantic pre-whaling. Now there are 10,000. Can anyone help me understand why a nation with so much wealth needs humpback meat (especially since its people haven't eaten it for forty years)?
Shifting Baselines
The Cure for Planetary Amnesia
The Shifting Baselines Blog
Jennifer Jacquet is a Ph.D. candidate with the Sea Around Us Project at the UBC Fisheries Centre. She works closely with Dr. Daniel Pauly, who coined the term Shifting Baselines, the syndrome on which this blog focuses.
Josh Donlan is a conservation scientist and a Visting Fellow at Cornell University. He often hides out in the backcountry of the Teton Mountains, pondering bygone giant beavers and ground sloths. He also is also the founder and Director of Advanced Conservation Strategies and has a habit of restoring remote islands.
Search this blog
New Projects & Publications
November 27, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "Why Consumers Alone Can't Save Our Fish" at 1pm at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C.
August 2008: Josh Donlan is co-author on a new paper titled Integrating invasive mammal eradications and biodiversity offsets for fisheries bycatch: conservation opportunities and challenges for seabirds and sea turtles published in Biological Invasions.
August 2008: Jennifer Jacquet is co-author on a new paper titled Funding Priorities: Big Barriers to Small-Scale Fisheries published in Conservation Biology.
August 2008: Josh Donlan is an author on a new paper in Journal of Applied Ecology titled Diversity, invasive species, and extinctions in insular ecosystems.
July 26, 2008: Randy Olson's film Sizzle premieres on the East Coast at the Woods Hole Film Festival in MA.
July 24, 2008: Josh Donlan gives a talk on biodiversity offsets to The Alcoa Foundation and the Alcao Intalco Aluminum Plant in Bellingham, Washington.
July 22, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "A Way Forward in a Sea of Market Based Initiatives to Save Wild Fish" at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA.
July 19, 2008: Randy Olson's film Sizzle premieres on the West Coast at Outfest in Hollywood, CA.
July 17, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "In Hot Soup: Shark's Captured in Ecuador's Waters" at the Society for Conservation Biology Annual Meeting in Chattanooga, TN.
July 9, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "Flawed Data, Reef Fisheries, And Food Security: A Close Inspection Of Marine Fisheries Catches in Mozambique, Tanzania, Fiji, And The Solomon Islands" at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
June/July 2008: Josh Donlan attends training for his Kinship Conservation Fellowship in Bellingham, WA.
May 2008: Josh Donlan is an author on a new paper in Ambio titled High impact Conservation: Invasive Mammal Eradications from the Islands of Western Mexico.
May 15, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet reviews Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood at the Tyee.
April 2008: Trade Secrets: Renaming and Mislabeling of Seafood by Jennifer Jacquet and Daniel Pauly is published in Marine Policy.
April 2008: Randy Olson and the Puget Sound Partnership release the flash video Shifting Baselines in the Sound:.
Mar. 2008: Dr. Josh Donlan joins the Shifting Baselines blog.
Jan. 2008 Jennifer Jacquet launches the Eat Like a Pig Seafood Wallet Card
Recent Posts
- Farmed vs. Wild? Is There Really Any Question?
- In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
- Greenpeace Makes Some More Difference
- Shifting Seas
- A Lame Duck Screwing The Environment
- Salmon, Orcas, Sea Lice, and Alexandra Morton
- The New, Warmer Baseline: No Coral Reefs
- Jelly Smackdown Forces Reactor to Close
- Barcelona Blues
- Signs of Overfishing in a New Name
Recent Comments
- Liz Z on In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
- zeb on In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
- zeb on In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
- Baratos on In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
- doug l on In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
- eddie on In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
- cory on In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
- gillt on In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
- Julie Stahlhut on In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
- Jennifer L. Jacquet on In Which I Call the "Impeach Obama" Bluff...
Archives
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
Online Resources and Blogs
- Altered Oceans
- Blog Fish
- Brian Halweil at Worldwatch
- Framing Science
- Intersection
- Loom
- Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets
- Muffy Moose Memo
- Natural Patriot
- Nexus
- Oceana
- Ocean Champions
- Pharyngula
- Real Oceans
- Shaping Room (Jim Moriarty)
- Surfider
- The Origin of the Term 'Shifting Baselines'
- The Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project
« Video Release Shames Vancouver | Main | Ocean Assification »
Great. Now This: Japan Whaling for Humpbacks
Category: What the...?
Posted on: November 18, 2007 3:55 PM, by Jennifer L. Jacquet
Find more posts in: 
Environment
Comments
Why is it okay to eat infiniate numbers of cows, but eating half a percent of the whales is a sin?
Posted by: Morris Petersen | November 18, 2007 4:09 PM
Why? My guess is, to make a point and to undermine the current international whaling management system (which, to be fair, is severely broken in several respects). The point is probably that if other indigenous peoples that's traditionally hunted whale can continue to do so long after its actually economically necessary, then so can Japan (which does fulfill all the same criteria).
Does it make some kind of sense from that perspective? Yes, to some degree it does. Does it make sense from a larger, economical viewpoint? No, of course not; it's completely destructive, and further, whale meat is considered something of a poverty diet and is not popular (it continued to be a school lunch staple - the very definition of cheap - up until the early 1960's). But then, the whaling system today doesn't make ecological or economical sense either.
My guess is that you basically need to scrap thecurrent regulatory system and create a new one, based on rational criteria rather than emotion and cultural exceptions in order to resolve this rolling deadlock.
Posted by: Janne | November 18, 2007 4:19 PM
Janne, Great to see you in the blogosphere. Your insights into Japanese culture are always valuable. Thanks for the interesting points.
Morris, Cows were domesticated nearly 10,000 years ago. Comparing cows to whales (or worse, to the friendly manatee or 'sea cow') is unacceptable since cows today exist expressly for human purposes while whales are wildlife. We've demolished most of this planet's wildlife and so I staunchly defend the meager remainder, particularly that which has no role in human survival. Your thoughts?
Posted by: Jennifer L. Jacquet | November 18, 2007 4:30 PM
Humpback whales have learned to trust man in the forty-five years since we stopped hunting them. If Japan carries out its aim of harpooning 50 humpback whales in the Antarctic this Southern Hemisphere Summer, the whale watching industry on Australia's east and west coasts will soon find out. The humpbacks are the same as those who delight Australians each year and have created a $AU 300 million a year whale watching industry. There is no benefit to mankind by killing these whales. Their meat won't help the poor ease their hunger but will grace the tables of the wealthy. The killing is done in the name of science but is it science to kill the subject? chris pash http://thelastwhale.blogspot.com
Posted by: chris pash | November 18, 2007 5:32 PM
Thanks, Chris, for also pointing out the economic argument against whaling for humpbacks. In 2001, the UNEP published a study that whale watchers (an estimated 10 million annually) spent an around $1 billion in 1998 on the spectacle.
This reminds me of my own whale-watching experience for an article I wrote in 2004 for the Massachusetts Wildlife Magazine:
I strain my eyes across the blue void in anticipation. The vessels topped with eager tourists floats quietly on the water. Finally, the pair arrives. The mother and calf approach the boat, peer up at their audience, and surface. They breathe. I am delighted but cannot help but furrow my brow. Plankton is, from an olfactory perspective, the garlic of the sea; the smell is almost as immense as the whales themselves. These humpbacks need a two-ton tic tac!
Posted by: Jennifer L. Jacquet | November 18, 2007 5:47 PM
Chris - you say that humpback whales have "learned to trust man" -- is that really documented? It's kinda cool if it is, but is it? What do you base that upon?
Posted by: Randy Olson | November 18, 2007 7:26 PM
"Swimmers must not approach a whale closer than 30 metres." http://www.whalediscoveries.com/wdguidelines.htm
If the whales let swimmers closer than 30 metres they do trust humans to some degree. More than the Government of Tonga does.
Posted by: Lassi Hippeläinen | November 18, 2007 11:11 PM
Sheril, from the Intersection, directed me to your blog as I am feeling so angry and disgusted with Japan. They are going against world opinion and protest, and for whatever reason, just do not seem to care. Shame on Japan!!! It will come back to haunt you.
Posted by: Linda | November 19, 2007 1:38 PM
It gets even worse if you look at the history. I understand that Japan has a different opinion of whales than the Western world. But I don't understand their willingness to bribe countries into appearing that they share their views.
Back in 2001, Japan admitted to bribing poor nations to support its pro-whaling stance at the IWC. The previous year, Dominica's environment minister resigned in protest because six Caribbean nations voted with Japan on almost every issue, including blocking a proposed whale sanctuary in the South Pacific. More recently, in 2005, the fisheries chief in the Solomon Islands accused Japan of bribes in the form of large aid packages in exchange for support at the IWC and cheap access to tuna fisheries.
All this scandal for a few hundred dead whales?
Posted by: Jennifer L. Jacquet | November 19, 2007 4:11 PM
Maybe they're going to try marketing to replace tuna with whalemeat, given the current tuna scarcity....
No, I'm not claiming this makes sense. It's just the sort of maximally perverse kind of thing that humans come up with on a regular basis.
Posted by: Luna_the_cat | November 25, 2007 12:58 PM
When I read of these Japanese hunting whales like this, I find myself wishing that some country out there would send it's military fleet out to see with instructions to take out ten Japanese whaling ships for every whale they're hunting. For "scientific research," of course.
Posted by: Morris Hattrick | November 25, 2007 10:51 PM
Andy Revikin wrote about whaling backlash this weekend in the New York Times...
Posted by: Jennifer L. Jacquet | November 26, 2007 6:04 AM