I don’t like to think of myself as a bleeding heart, but something just doesn’t sit right with me about killing whales. It’s seems like an excruciatingly anachronistic practice that has little reason to continue other than culture. Where countries like Japan are concerned, there does not appear to be a broader necessity to hunt whales. And so it’s a bit of a disappointment to learn that last Wednesday, a fleet of six Japanese whaling ships left the southern port of Shimonoseki to begin their annual Antarctic whale hunt.
The group plans to hunt 850 minke whales and ten fin whales. As reported by the BBC, Japan says the catches are small and the populations of these whale species are relatively plentiful in the Antarctic. Of course, someone will out there protesting (and good for them). Captain Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an activist organization determined to protect the whale species, plans to intervene and prevent the hunt. Again, some outdated cultural practices are probably tolerable, but IMHO whaling is not one of them.