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Saving the Whales of the Southern Hemisphere

Thus far, the International Whaling Commission (IWC), representing the wishes of eighty-eight nations throughout the world, has established two whale sanctuaries that it reviews each decade. One covers the Indian Ocean (1979) and an adjoining sanctuary includes most of the Southern Ocean (1994). Treaties in effect for over a quarter of a century have banned the international commercial trade in whale meat. Efforts by some nations to form a third and fourth IWC sanctuary in the Southern Pacific and Southern Atlantic oceans have not yet met with success, but proponents keep trying. Little by little, the world is becoming safe again for whales.

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Saving the Whales of the Southern Hemisphere

Joining in the effort, several countries have used their jurisdictional powers to ban commercial whaling along their coasts including Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador and Panama. The legal basis for establishing these sanctuaries stems from the United Nations having authorized countries to protect the marine resources that lie within 200 nautical miles of their coastlines. Some of these zones protect only certain areas or species. Others are all-encompassing and protect all whales that happen to swim by. The most ambitious of these national efforts envisions interconnected sanctuaries stretching from the east coast of South America to the west coast of Africa.

The effort to save Antarctic whales from Japanese whalers was initiated by Greenpeace in the 1970s. Handed over to the more radical, single-focus NGO, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the fight has become a suspenseful, action-packed reality TV show. Week after week, cameras go aboard to capture the Sea Shepherd’s scheming and forays on behalf of minkes against Japanese whaling ships to save as many animals as they can. Citing the International Whaling Commission’s prohibition against commercial whaling as its raison d’être, Sea Shepherd’s goal is to stop all whaling. Japan fights back, endeavoring to keep the renegade ship out of harm’s way while accomplishing its own mission. Raising the profile of the struggle has undoubtedly increased the popularity of travel to Antarctica and whale watching on Argentina tours and elsewhere.

Don’t let guilt and cultural bias dictate environmental policy, the whaling nations say. Catch limits should be based on science. How many whales does research need, the environmentalists ask? That the butchered remains of these research animals wind up in Tokyo whale restaurants doesn’t help the cause of whaling in the court of public opinion. Perhaps we tiny humans have come to think of killing whales as hubris. What right have we to chop this magnificent creature into lucrative bits, to furnish delicacies for the wealthy, additives for expensive perfumes, a food staple to cultures that no longer savor it, sending the leftovers to pet food? To save whaling, the pro-whaling nations will have to convince the rest of us that in these days of synthetics and substitutes, the reasons for sacrificing whales make more sense than those to save them, whether they are endangered or not. Until then, more and more policy makers will be siding with the whale watchers.

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