Have you been having a hankering for a big juicy whaleburger lately that your local Arby's can't seem to fill? Well, if pro-whaling nations get their way, blubber could be back on the menu around the globe.
Not content with achieving international pariah status for the annual dolphin slaughter , Japan is looking to shore up the legitimacy of its whaling industry by encouraging other countries to climb aboard.
Japan and several other nations, including Norway and Iceland, have long lobbied to reverse the opinion of much of the planet that the current moratorium on whaling should be maintained. Now, tired of fighting with Western whale-huggers, the cetecean-slaughtering nations are seeking new allies in the war on our closest maritime cousins.
Prior to the meeting of the International Whaling Commission in London this week, the Japanese delegation is hosting seminars on the concept of sustainable whaling for 12 countries, including Angola, Eritrea, and Micronesia .
Why do we care what Micronesians think about whaling? Well, the implications could be serious, in fact downright fatal if you happen to weigh 50 tons and live underwater - at present anti-whaling nations are the larger voting bloc in the IWC, but if more pro-whaling countries were to join, a vote in favour of renewed killing of whales could be passed.
The whalers argument is that that the anti-whaling movement is simply a cultural artifact unique to certain Western countries, and should have no bearing on what is a legitimate food source. By that logic whales are simply another animal, and harpooning a whale is pretty much the same as killing a chicken (although requiring more specialized tools).
Consider, however, that many species of whales were almost exterminated by a few thousand men in wooden boats. Imagine how much harm we could do by over-hunting whales now, especially when we're already threatening them with pollution, climate change, habitat loss, overfishing of their food stocks, etc etc etc.
Is a revived hunt really necessary? Come on, Japan - pick on someone your own size.
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