by Marc Phillippe Babineau

Created on: July 05, 2009

Unfortunately, whales are still being hunted today for the oil, blubber, bones and meat that they provide, no matter how close to extinction, or unearthly beautiful they may be. Japan is openly whaling all year long, in a never-ending battle with Greanpeace and other pro-ecology associations that actually take action on country's ships while enforcing the international whaling moratorium of 1986. Whales being targeted by whalers come in all species that roam the oceans, with the biggest mammal left alive today, and the largest mammal that ever did live, the blue whale, being a special catch. It seems the closer they are to extinction or the bigger they are, the better they taste.

Japan, with almost 128 Million people, is not exactly open to military intervention to stop them from whaling, openly practicing their craft in front of different countries' navies, Greanpeace, documentarians and journalists. And decimating those beautiful creatures that predate our own race on this lovely blue planet, third from the Sun seems to be a lifetime quest for mankind, with stories of whale captures predating human record keeping.

All whales targeted by whalers are targeted illegally, since the whaling moratorium came into effect in 1986, ending the killing of the largest and most majestic animals left in the world today. Other countries openly defying the whaling moratorium include Norway and Iceland, with all three claiming to use "scientific exemptions" as excuses for hunting them. Scientific exemptions were included in the original wording of the whaling moratorium, but the meaning, as usual, has been introverted to the benefit of the whalers.

According to Greenpeace, between 1925, when commercial whaling began in earnest, and 1975, approximately 1.5 million whales were hunted and killed. With the introduction of human-created pollution into the oceans, and the exploding of atomic and hydrogen bombs into the deep blue wonder, mankind has done more to destroy the ecosystem of the oceans that the whales make their homes in, feed and breed in. Hunting the whales is just one part of how mankind has managed to destroy one more species other than themselves.

Suspiciously, of the approximatley 78 - 80 species of whales ever known to have exist, none has reportedly been rendered extinct, by human hands or any other means. Some species' populations are extremely low, like the North Atlantic Right Whale (about 300 known), but with proper management and care of the waters that they live in, the whale populations are on the brink of reaffirming their seniority in the oceans.

Hunting and killing whales serves no purpose, other than to feed a people that enjoy the taste of the blubber. However, the amount of krill, the marine organisms that whales feed so hungrily upon, is receding to near disastrous numbers, and the whales targeted by whalers may all of a sudden be serving a purpose, in allowing the number of krill to increase, the number of baleen whales would have to be monitored and kept at a scientifically deduced number per species.

But most whales pretty much eat whatever fits in their mouths, and with pollution and fallout from nuclear detonations mixing with their meals, which should make all other whales targeted by whalers off limits, as the meat and blubber may be contaminated. This is one mammal that has been on this world a lot longer than we have, and they deserve to be here long after we have killed ourselves off.

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