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Whatsapp Blue whale at the Grytviken Whaling Station, Prince Edward Cove, South Georgia, Shackleton Expedition 1914-1917

As most of the world moves towards observing and conserving the lives of whale populations, John Newton looks back at the savage history and exploitation of these magnificent creatures, ahead of an impending decision by the International Court of Justice about the future of the Japanese whaling program.

In a curious 1941 book, Whaling Ship Diary, intended to explain whaling to Japanese schoolchildren, author Marukawa Hisatoshi tells the following story, which I will paraphrase.

A young harpoon gunner who began working at the age of thirteen was highly praised for his skill and accuracy. When he grew up, he married, and his wife soon gave birth to a son. After the birth he went back to his job and one day his catcher boat came upon what turned out to be a bull, a cow and a calf. His captain yelled at him to fire at the calf and he scored a direct hit. The crew cheered and he was pleased at his skill. But then, as he watched, he saw the mother had gone to the side of the calf and then it was covered in something white. She had released her mother’s milk in a final gesture of love for her calf.

Looking at that scene, the story goes, the image of his wife and new-born child came to him. His captain ordered him to kill the mother. He brought his hands together in prayer and obeyed. Soon after that incident he changed his occupation.

The Japanese no longer eat whale. One shopkeeper interviewed in The Economist said, ‘we ate whale meat as children. But we didn’t like it’. At time of writing at least 5000 tonnes of frozen whale meat sits in storage.

If that story is designed to teach children about whaling, it does so in a very strange way. The Japanese have displayed such conflicted views on the eating, hunting and killing of whales since the 19th century.

Another book on whaling, The Battle with the Whales at Ogawajima, written by Hoshutei Riyu in 1840, and presented by a whaling group to the local shrine, could be said to be a reflection on the thinking of those involved in whaling. Towards the end of the book, Hoshutei writes that in its final moments, the whale turns to the west —the Buddhist paradise.

‘How merciless it is,’ Hoshutei laments, ‘to feel no pity for that resounding cry of pain as they face the west to die.’ But then he presents the counter argument. ‘A man came up and said in reply….the life of a great whale and the life of a tiny whitebait are no different…the time comes to cook the tiny whitebait in the cooking pot.’

It was the whitebait argument that prevailed, and by the early twentieth century, Japan already had a thriving whaling industry. Once again, there was not universal approval. In 1911, the local fishermen at Same Village in Aomori prefecture burnt down a large whale processing facility because the blood and oil runoff was polluting the environment and the ocean and endangering their fishing grounds. This same region had a long tradition of venerating whales, referring to them as gods.

But so thriving was this new industry that as early as 1912, long before the establishment of the International Whaling Commission in 1949, an American scientist and adventurer Roy Chapman Andrews (said to have been then model for Spielberg’s Indiana Jones) wrote after visiting Japan: ‘It is probable that long before the slow moving wheels of government begin to revolve and legislation is enacted for their protection, [whales] will have become commercially extinct.’

The first whales in Australia were killed in 1791, not long after the whalers in the third fleet dumped their ‘live lumber’—convicts—and went a’whaling off Sydney harbour heads. There was no moral argument, just a determination to kill as many whales as possible and to send as many barrels of whale oil and whale bone to the markets of the world as they could. For around the first hundred years of the colony, whaling was a major export industry.

It sputtered on through the first half of the century, with various governments keen to revive the industry and send whaling ships to the Southern Ocean where Japanese and Norwegian whalers were reaping fortunes from slaughtering the mighty blue whales, 33,000 of which were killed between 1910 and 1966. These became prey for the whaler after the introduction in 1870 of the explosive harpoon and in 1825 of the factory ship.

Among those urging the government along was Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson who said Australia 'should lose no time in establishing its own industry’. In 1950, to promote the idea, whale steaks were served in Parliament house. That no industry was established can be traced to the government’s unwillingness to pay AUD 2m for a whaling ship.

But gradually our whaling industry closed down, and on November 2, 1978 the last whale killed in Australia, an eleven metre sperm whale, was harpooned off the coast of Albany. The industry fell prey to Australian moral revulsion at the wholesale slaughter of these magnificent mammals.

And on June 26, 2013, Australia—with support from New Zealand—took Japan to the International Court of Justice for violating ‘its international obligations pursuant to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.’ The case closed on July 17. The court is now deliberating its judgement.

For Japan, Payam Akhavan argued that Australia’s accusation that Japan had lied to the International Whaling Commission about the purpose of its whaling was ‘an affront to the dignity of a nation’, and that ‘the traditions and cultures of people are sacrificed to appease other people’s sentiments and selective moral judgements'.

Australia’s case, as presented by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus was that ‘Japan was doing commercial whaling up to the introduction (by the IWC) of the moratorium in the Southern Ocean. After the moratorium, they simply rebadged it as scientific research'.

Savage history of whaling Listen to John Newton's conversation with Phillip Adams at Late Night Live.

It is a strange case: morality versus national pride. And little to do with practicality. The Japanese no longer eat whale. One shopkeeper interviewed in The Economist said ‘We ate whale meat as children. But we didn’t like it.’ At time of writing at least 5000 tonnes of frozen whale meat sits in storage.

Interviewed in the same story, Tomohiko Taniguchi, an adjunct professor at Tokyo’s Keio University and once a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said that ‘…by sticking to this minor, minor issue, Japan was gradually losing friends from the international community'. Taniguchi favours a compromise, which would downsize Japan’s hunt but leave them a small-scale coastal quota.

And this may well be the decision of the court. But how will this sit with the anti-whaling organisation Sea Shepherd, which has vowed to never retreat or surrender the southern oceans? Will a change of venue to Japanese coastal waters hose down this determination?

And more interestingly, if the court finds for Australia, will the Japanese comply? And if they don’t, will Australia enforce? Big mammals, big problems.

John Newton is the author of A Savage History: Whaling in the Pacific and Southern Oceans (New South Publishing). Find out more at Late Night Live.

