Published in The Dress Circle September 2006
Nancy Lord used to observe hundreds of beluga whales swim by “like white wheels turning”, as she fished commercially for salmon at her home in Cook Inlet, Alaska. From a few thousand belugas in the 1990s, these whales declined to a few hundred over the period of a decade and are now threatened with extinction.
As Lord watched their numbers get fewer and fewer, she set out to discover the reasons why. The result of her journey, spanning talks with Native hunters who are permitted to hunt whales for their food source to research at theme parks where the cetaceans are trained to do flip-flops, is her book “Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale’s Truth”.
Whales are in critical danger of becoming extinct worldwide. Many environmentalists blame this on whaling although other factors like global climate change, pollution, ozone depletion, noise and ship strikes, overfishing which exhausts the food supply of whales and getting entangled in fishing gear also contribute to the depletion.
Still, whaling has had a history of being overdone in one area after another and on one species after another, leading to the decimation of species after species. For example, the blue whale, which is the largest animal ever to have lived on Earth, is estimated at a worldwide population of less than 10 per cent of its prewhaling size.
Only one population, the East Pacific grey whale is close to its original abundance. But the West Pacific grey whale is the most endangered population of whales in the world, hovering on the brink of extinction with just over a hundred of them left. Orcas or killer whales, too, are under threat with their numbers shrinking over time.
Whales play an important role in the ecosystem of the ocean. By virtue of their size, they are at the top of the food chain feeding on plankton and all other fish smaller than them. If whales were to disappear their prey would increase dramatically in number, overeating other prey and thus pushing the balance of nature off-centre.
In order to protect their numbers, the International Whaling Commission, made up of 70 member nations including China, passed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986, with the only exceptions being aboriginal hunting and whaling for scientific research.
But, tragically, the whaling continues. In fact Japan, Norway and Iceland never stopped hunting whales. These countries have a long tradition of whaling and argue that it is part of their cultural heritage. In addition, Japan disguises its whaling program as scientific research, further incurring the wrath of anti-whaling parties.
“Japan’s attempt to dress up its commercial whaling as science is an insult to modern science,” said the International Fund for Animal Welfare. “It’s time for the Japanese Government to respect the rest of the world – it’s time to stop whaling.”
The commercial benefits of whaling are hard to dispute. There is a famous saying which goes “There’s nothing to throw away from a whale except its voice.” Whales have long been a source of food, oil and material, although new generations of Japanese are finding whale meat no longer to their taste.
In June this year pro-whaling nations led by Japan managed to push through a statement declaring the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling unnecessary and blaming whales for exhausting the supply of fish in the oceans. This has led to a group of animal welfare groups planning an international campaign called “Save the Whales, Again”.
There is, however, an alternative. Whale watching is becoming a sustainable economic opportunity for coastal communities in Japan and countries across Asia. Forty-one different species of whales and dolphins, which is more than half of all cetacean species, can be found off the coasts of Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. These include the critically endangered West Pacific grey, the famous pink Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin and the Minke whale. “Animals and people both do better when whales are seen and not hurt,” say the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Whales and dolphins are often thought be more intelligent than man. Anti-whaling activist, Captain Paul Watson, argues that the cetacean brain is superior to the human brain. “Humans may be the paramount tool makers of the Earth, but the whales may be the paramount thinkers,” he says in an article ‘Do whales and dolphins have superior intelligence or are they just big fish?’
As an indication of this intelligence, every year during the mating season the male humpback whale composes and performs a unique song lasting about 30 minutes, which is repeated continuously for hours at a time. This song is one of the most complex series of sounds created by the animal kingdom. American composer Alan Houhaness was awed enough by the songs that he used recorded humpback whale sounds in his 1970 piece ‘And God Created Great Whales’.
Scientists think that the whale song is used to attract a mate and also to serve as a warning to other male humpbacks to stay away, although new research has shown that the singers are often escorting a mother humpback and her calf.
Cetaceans are very sociable animals. They generally get along better with each other than men do. They cooperate with and protect each other. Some cetaceans have individual names and when communicating would precede their message with the name of the cetacean they are speaking with. Their superior level of intelligence has led to speculation that cetaceans are the guardians of a higher way of living and therefore should be protected.
Whales have long been a source of inspiration for man. From biblical times when Jonah got swallowed by a whale to Moby Dick, that great white whale that was the target of an obsessed Captain Ahab to Keiko, the orca from the movie Free Willy, whales have inspired us with their size and their intelligence.