Should Whaling be banned?
The International Whaling Commision issued a moratorium on whaling in 1982. Since then most countries have not purposefully killed any whales. However, some countries were never in agreement with this ban in the first place and the International Whaling Commision is now on the brink of changing the ban to allow more whaling to take place.
To find out whether this was a good idea or not I wanted to find a few facts about the whaling industry and whales in general.
In particular, I wanted to find out what whale carcasses are used for, apart from meat. I also wanted to know whether there was any other way to make products primarily made using parts of a whale. Another thing that I felt needed to be included is how painless the so called 'humane' methods of killing were, how long it took the whale to die for example.
I wanted to know what the population was of certain species and how endangered they were, to help me get an idea of how much harm is being done by killing them. These are just a few of the things I tried to find out.
Typically, as much as possible of the whale carcass was used. Obviously the meat was used for food, but oil from the liver, bones and skin was also put to a number of uses. These uses included the makings of perfume and make-up, alcohol, candles and other similar uses. All of these products are now made from mineral oil or other kinds of grease/wax.
Baleen plates were used for horse whips, umbrellas and corsets and tennis racquets from the sinews. Nowadays these are made of synthetic materials which are much. less brittle and a lot cheaper. The skin was used for handbags, belts, shoes etc. and plastic and leather now replace the whale skin. The teeth were once used for piano keys, jewellery and buttons, but we how use the much cheaper plastic or coral. (1), (5).
This shows that there is no need to hunt whales for the products made using parts of their bodies. This information is very reliable...