Save the Whales...Again

Speak Up for Whales!

Earlier this spring, we received news that the Obama Administration is willing to send a delegation to the International Whaling commission meeting next month with instructions to agree to a compromise. The compromise allows for increased quotas of whaling of some whale species in return for the closing of some existing loopholes.

The news of the compromise took marine mammal activists by surprise. After all, we’d achieved a moratorium on whaling way back in 1986. The news is like a serial axe murderer coming back from the dead and beginning a new round of terrorism. To say it’s aggravating to have to revisit this issue is an understatement, because I know that the majority of people are opposed to whaling. And it’s surprising, too, that it’s coming from the current Administration, because one would think that Obama, being from Hawaii, would be very much into whales.

But once the shock subsided, the answer is clear. We cannot acquiesce on the question of the whales because it would be a way to make nice with our political buddies—Norway, Iceland and Japan.

It doesn’t matter what countries are engaging in whaling. It’s just plain wrong. There is no culture on this planet that is depending on whale meat for survival. In fact, in an article that appeared in The New York Times on Sunday, May 16, 2010, came the revelation that as a whole, the eating of whalemeat was never the national tradition in Japan we were told it was. It was only in a few coastal locations—where coastal whaling took place—where people ate whalemeat. The food source was implemented nationwide in Japan after WWII. Now, the percentages of Japanese who eat whale are tiny, and the purpose of the government-supported programs seem to be a political decision to a) preserve some cushy bureaucratic jobs, and b) because the Japanese resent our “Western Imperialism” for meddling in their culture.

I don’t regard the evolution of consciousness as “Western Imperialism.” From whatever country in the world, if we do not bear witness against what we have evolved to see as wrong, then what have we become? Certainly we’re no longer creatures made in the image of the Divine.

So how does one say graciously, “Give it up, Japan! It’s time to move on!?” Plainly. That’s how.

And what’s the point of compromising for the unenforceable, because the proposed compromise would depend on the whaling nations’ voluntary compliance, as this no equivalent of United Nations’ forces on the high seas. It’s just the fox guarding the henhouse. So we easily agree to the compromise, and lose the moral high ground, and the same folks who have been killing whales all along would just keep killing them. No loopholes would be closed.

We must continue to state what is important to us. In the 70s we saw the establishment of the Endangered Species Act. Though the Bush Administration tried to abolish it recently, it has remained and it acknowledges the rights of other species to exist, and our recognition that the planet is diminished if we do not protect other species and the habitats on which they depend.

We don’t usually think of history as being shaped by silence, but, as English philosopher Edmund Burke said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ So let not complacency rule the day with regard to these magnificent creatures of the sea.

“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance,” is written large across the top of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC. We can add that eternal vigilance will be the price of all forms of environmental and species protection in a world marked by over-population and rapacious economic interests.

Those who missed the opportunity to sign petitions at those demonstrations can still engage by emailing the White House (www.whitehouse.gov) or telephoning (202-456-1111) and simply saying, “I oppose whaling.”