In the past whales were a valuable commdity providing fuel for lamps from their fat deposits and a rich source of for some of those who got the giant mammal of the sea. The sperm whale, in particular, was hunted by northern coast line cities for the sperm oil that it produced which burned longer that other types of oil. It also provided a variety of uses for other products such as crayons, cosmetics, candles, lubricants, leather waterproofing and etc. The issue as of recently as that some species of whale, such as the sperm whale, have been placed on the endangered species list due to the over hunting of these particular animals.
In the pacific and more frigid areas it has been put into effect an international moratorium on the hunting of whales. The enforcement of such a law becomes difficult and the market for whale products has not diminished. Many have been able to get around this law with specific reasons for hunting
An international moratorium on whaling has been in place since 1986, but Japan exploits a loophole allowing whaling for scientific purposes to justify its annual hunt.
The number that they hunt and the season in which they hunt for these whales does not demonstrate a goal of scientific research. If it were research the numbers hunted would be greatly reduced and there would be extensive measures taken to not kill the whales in the process. In addition to this, according to Japan times there was a specific amount of money allocated to rebuilding the earthquake that devastated many cities throughout Japan along with the disaster with the nuclear power plant. An editorial stated that:
This year, the Japanese government allowed ¥2.28 billion from funds allocated for recovery from the earthquake and tsunami to be spent on the whaling expedition in hopes of helping the Tohoku economy, where some of the ships are based. That may not be much out of the ¥12 trillion allocated for recovery, but this whaling subsidy provides little benefit to coastal communities and stymies efforts to reconstruct genuinely sustainable industries. That money could have been used for many other purposes.
While this is an editorial and not an official article nor anything which contains research on these claims it does give a surprising and slightly disturbing perspective into this conflict. Conservationalists and the hunters need a way to communicate the dangers of overhunting whales and the impact it would have on the ecosystems in those areas. Finding a sustainable method of hunting whales would not remove this industry and thus take out a profitable market but would quite possibly reduce the number of black market trades of the catch of whale hunts.
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