DOCSLIB.ORG

Whale-Watchers' Perceptions of Whaling in Iceland

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Whale-Watchers' Perceptions of Whaling in Iceland Master’s thesis Whale-Watchers' Perceptions of Whaling in Iceland Erin H. M. Henderson Advisor: Chiara G. Bertulli, Ph.D. University of Akureyri Faculty of Business and Science University Centre of the Westfjords Master of Resource Management: Coastal and Marine Management Ísafjörður, August 2020 Supervisory Committee Advisor: Chiara G. Bertulli, Ph.D. External Reader: Laura Malinauskaite, MA Program Director: Catherine Chambers, Ph.D. Erin H. M. Henderson Whale-Watchers' Perceptions of Whaling in Iceland 45 ECTS thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of a Master of Resource Management degree in Coastal and Marine Management at the University Centre of the Westfjords, Suðurgata 12, 400 Ísafjörður, Iceland Degree accredited by the University of Akureyri, Faculty of Business and Science, Borgir, 600 Akureyri, Iceland Copyright © 2020 Erin H. M. Henderson All rights reserved Printing: Háskólaprent, Reykjavík, August 2020 Declaration I hereby confirm that I am the sole author of this thesis and it is a product of my own academic research. __________________________________________ Erin H. M. Henderson Abstract Wild cetaceans have been an important marine resource for thousands of years, providing food for coastal communities and consumer products for whaling nations. Years of overexploitation led to a near complete ban on commercial whaling in the 1980s, after which whale-watching became the main economic use of wild cetaceans. Because whaling still takes place in several countries, there has been continued debate over whether it can coexist alongside the whale-watching industry. In Iceland, whaling and whale-watching activities both occur in the same locale, and there is concern that whale-watchers may be discouraged from visiting a country that hunts whales. Whale-watchers in Húsavík, Iceland were surveyed in July and August of 2019 to determine how the presence of the whaling industry affected their decision to go whale-watching. Questionnaires were filled out by respondents on the quay and at the Húsavík Whale Museum, located in the harbour area. A total of 224 completed questionnaires were collected and analysed to investigate demographics, booking decisions, whale meat consumption, and perceptions of whaling. Respondents were mostly young females who attended tours in Húsavík because they considered it a good whale- watching location which fit best with their travel plans. Most of those surveyed were aware that whaling took place in Iceland before booking their tour, and even prior to arriving in the country. Overall, whale-watchers were opposed to whaling, though the majority of those from a whaling nation were supportive of the practice. Additionally, while whale meat is marketed primarily to tourists, most respondents were not interested in trying it. Útdráttur I þúsundir ára hafa villtir hvalir verið mikilvæg auðlind fyrir sjávarbyggðir hvalveiðiþjóða, hvort sem er í formi matar og annarrar neysluvöru. Áralöng ofveiði leiddi til nær algjörs banns við hvalveiðum í atvinnuskyni á níunda áratugnum. Í kjölfar þess urðu hvalaskoðanir helsta efnahagslega nýting villtra hvalastofna. Þar sem hvalveiðar eru enn stundaðar í fjölmörgum löndum hefur farið fram umtalsverð umræða um það hvort hvalaskoðun og hvalveiðar geti átt samleið. Á Íslandi eiga hvalveiðar og hvalaskoðanir sér stað á sömu svæðunum. Uppi eru áhyggjur af því að ferðamenn sem sækja í hvalaskoðun hafi minni áhuga á slíku í löndum sem stunda hvalveiðar. Könnun var framkvæmd meðal ferðamanna í hvalaskoðunum á Húsavík í júlí og ágúst 2019 til að ákvarða hvaða áhrif hvalveiða hefði á ákvörðun þeirra að fara í hvalaskoðun. Þátttakendur svöruðu spurningakönnun á hafnarbakkanum og á Hvalasafninu á Húsavík, sem er staðsett á hafnarsvæðinu. Svörum frá alls 224 þátttakendum var safnað og þau síðan greind út frá lýðfræðiupplýsingum, bókunarákvörðunum, hvalkjötsneyslu og viðhörfum til hvalveiða. Svarendur voru að mestu leyti ungar konur sem fóru í hvalaskoðunarferðir á Húsavík af þeirri ástæðu að þær töldu staðinn góðan hvalaskoðunarstað sem féll vel að ferðaskipulagi þeirra. Flestir þátttakendur vour meðvitaðir um að hvalveiðar ættu sér stað á Íslandi áður en þeir bókuðu ferð og jafnvel áður en þeir komu til landsins. Heilt yfir voru hvalaskoðendurnir andvígir hvalveiðum, þótt flestir sem komu frá hvalveiðiþjóðum væru fylgjandi veiðum. Auk þess kom í ljós að þótt hvalkjöt sé einkum markaðssett fyrir ferðamenn voru fæstir þátttakendur áhugasamir um að prófa það. v For my grandfather, Christopher Henderson. 1941-2018 vi Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ v Dedication……………………………………………………………………………...….vi Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………..…….vii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. xi 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 2 Theoretical Overview .................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Whaling ................................................................................................................... 3 2.1.1 Historical Whaling ........................................................................................... 3 2.1.2 Modern Whaling .............................................................................................. 4 2.1.3 Icelandic Whaling ............................................................................................ 5 2.2 Whale Meat Consumption ...................................................................................... 7 2.3 Whale-Watching ..................................................................................................... 8 2.3.1 Whale-Watching in Iceland ............................................................................. 9 2.3.2 Positive Impacts of Whale-Watching ............................................................ 10 2.3.3 Negative Impacts of Whale-Watching .......................................................... 11 2.4 Whaling vs Whale-Watching ................................................................................ 12 2.4.1 Conflict .......................................................................................................... 12 2.4.2 Coexistence .................................................................................................... 13 2.4.3 Iceland ........................................................................................................... 13 3 Material and Methods ............................................................................................... 17 3.1 Study Area ............................................................................................................ 17 3.2 Data collection ...................................................................................................... 20 3.3 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................ 22 4 Results ......................................................................................................................... 25 4.1 Effort ..................................................................................................................... 25 4.2 Demographics ....................................................................................................... 25 4.3 Environmental Values ........................................................................................... 27 4.4 Is This Your First Visit to Iceland? ...................................................................... 28 4.5 Whale-Watching: Experience, Destination Choice, and Expectations ................. 28 4.6 Attitudes Towards Icelandic Whaling .................................................................. 31 4.7 Attitudes Towards Whale Meat Consumption ...................................................... 34 4.8 Mitigating Scenarios ............................................................................................. 35 5 Discussion ................................................................................................................... 37 5.1 New Study Results ................................................................................................ 37 vii 5.1.2 Environmental Values ................................................................................... 38 5.1.3 Whale-Watching ............................................................................................ 38 5.1.4 Support for Whaling ...................................................................................... 39 5.1.5 Whale Meat Consumption ............................................................................. 40 5.1.6 Mitigating Measures ...................................................................................... 41 5.2 Comparison with Other Studies ............................................................................ 42 5.2.1 Demographics ................................................................................................ 42 5.2.2 Environmental Values ................................................................................... 42 5.2.3 Whale-Watching
Load more

Recommended publications
  • New Bedford Whaling
    Whaling Capital of the World Park Partners Cultural Effects Lighting the World Sternboard from the brig Scrimshaw Port of Entry Starting in the Colonial era, the finest smokeless, odorless “ The town itself is perhaps Eunice H. Adams, 1845. On voyages that might The whaling industry Americans pursued whales candles. Whale-oil was also the dearest place to live last as long as four employed large num- primarily for blubber to fuel processed into fine industrial in, in all New England. years, whalemen spent bers of African-Ameri- lamps. Whale blubber was lubricating oils. Whale-oil their leisure hours cans, Azoreans, and rendered into oil at high All these brave houses carving and scratching Cape Verdeans, whose from New Bedford ships lit and flowery gardens decorations on sperm communities still flour- temperatures aboard ship—a much of the world from the whale teeth, whale- ish in New Bedford process whalemen called “try- 1830s until petroleum alterna- came from the Atlantic, bone, and baleen. This today. New Bedford’s ing out.” Sperm whales were tives like kerosene and gas re- Pacific, and Indian folk art, known as role in 19th-century prized for their higher-grade placed it in the 1860s. COLLECTION, NEW BEDFORD WHALING MUSEUM scrimshaw, often de- American history was spermaceti oil, used to make oceans. One and all, picted whaling adven- not limited to whaling, they were harpooned Today, New Bedford is a city of The National Park Service National Park Service is to work Heritage Center in Barrow, tures or scenes of however. It was also a nearly 100,000, but its historic joined this partnership in 1996 collaboratively with a wide Alaska, to help recognize the home.
    [Show full text]
  • Japanese Whaling and the International Community: Enforcing the International Court of Justice and Halting NEWREP-A
    Japanese Whaling and the International Community: Enforcing the International Court of Justice and Halting NEWREP-A By Samuel K. Rebmann The bodies that regulate public international law, particularly those concerning areas of environmental law, are currently incapable of unilaterally enforcing international treaties and conventions. On December 1, 2015, Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) commenced the organization’s New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean (NEWREP-A). This paper argues that by launching NEWREP-A, Japan willfully acted in direct contravention to the International Court of Justice’s ruling in Australia v. Japan (2014), which found that the ICR’s previous research programs violated existing public international law and, thus, blocked all future scientific whaling permits from being issued to the Japanese institute. Through examining the international treaties and conventions governing whaling, environmental and maritime law, the historical context of Japanese whaling practices, and American legislative and political history, this paper defends the International Court of Justice’s opinion and calls on the American government to support and enforce the ruling through extraterritorial application of United States law. In direct opposition to a 2014 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Japanese government declared in June 2015 their intent to revive the Institute of Cetacean Research’s (ICR) scientific whaling program. The ICJ held in Australia v. Japan that the second phase of the Japanese Whale Research Program Under Special Permit in the Antarctic (JARPA II) violated international law; the court ordered the revocation of all existing permits and prevented the issuance of future permits, which included the proposed Research Plan for New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean (NEWREP-A).¹ Specifically, the court found that JARPA II failed to observe regulations set forth by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), such as the 1986 binding international moratorium 1.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
    WHALING LINGO and the NANTUCKET SLEIGH RIDE 0. WHALING LINGO and the NANTUCKET SLEIGH RIDE - Story Preface 1. THE CREW of the ESSEX 2. FACTS and MYTHS about SPERM WHALES 3. KNOCKDOWN of the ESSEX 4. CAPTAIN POLLARD MAKES MISTAKES 5. WHALING LINGO and the NANTUCKET SLEIGH RIDE 6. OIL from a WHALE 7. HOW WHALE BLUBBER BECOMES OIL 8. ESSEX and the OFFSHORE GROUNDS 9. A WHALE ATTACKS the ESSEX 10. A WHALE DESTROYS the ESSEX 11. GEORGE POLLARD and OWEN CHASE 12. SURVIVING the ESSEX DISASTER 13. RESCUE of the ESSEX SURVIVORS 14. LIFE after the WRECK of the ESSEX Robert E. Sticker created an oil painting interpreting the “Nantucket Sleigh Ride,” an adrenalin-producing event which occurred after whalers harpooned a whale. As the injured whale reacted to the trauma, swimming away from its hunters, it pulled the small whaleboat and its crew behind. Copyright Robert Sticker, all rights reserved. Image provided here as fair use for educational purposes and to acquaint new viewers with Sticker’s work. As more and more Nantucketers hunted, captured and killed whales—including sperm whales—whalers had to travel farther and farther from home to find their prey. In the early 18th century, Nantucketers were finding cachalot (sperm whales) in the middle of the Pacific at a place they called the “Offshore Ground.” A thousand miles, or so, off the coast of Peru, the Offshore Ground seemed to be productive. After taking-on supplies at the Galapagos Islands—including 180 additional large tortoises (from Hood Island) to use as meat when they were so far from land—Captain Pollard and his crew sailed the Essex toward the Offshore Grounds.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture, Politcs and Japanese Whaling Perspectives of Japanese Youth
    Bibliography ABC. 2008. ‘Japan Grants Whale Meat Import License’. ABC Radio Australia 20th November 2008. Available at <http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200811/s2424490.htm> (accessed 26th November 2008). ABC. 2009. ‘Japan Vows to Carry on Whaling’. 11th December. Available at <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/11/2768448.htm?section=justin> (accessed 9th April 2010). ABC. 2010. ‘Whaling Commission Asked to Probe Bribery Claims’. 21st June. Available at <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/21/2932682.htm> (accessed 14th August 2010). Allen, K.R. 1980. Conservation and Management of Whales. Seattle: University of Washington Press, pp. 12-14. Anderson, J.L. 1991. Japanese Tea Ritual. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Andresen, S. 1989. ‘Science and Politics in the International Management of Whales’. Marine Policy 13(2): 99-117. Anton, D.K. 2008. ‘Australian Jurisdiction and Whales in Antarctica: Why the Australian Whale Sanctuary in Antarctic Waters Does Not Pass International Legal Muster and is also a Bad Idea as Applied to Non-Nationals’. Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law 11(3&4): 159-192. Anton, D.K. 2009. ‘Antarctic Whaling: Australia’s Attempt to Protect Whales in the Southern Ocean’. Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 36(2): 319-351. Aoyagi-Usui, M., Vinken, H., & Kuribayashi, A. 2003. ‘Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behaviours: An International Comparison’. Human Ecology Review 10(1): 23-31. Arcury, T.A. & Christianson, E.H. 1993. ‘Rural-Urban Differences in Environmental Knowledge and Actions’. Journal of Environmental Education 25(1): 19-25. Aron, W.
    [Show full text]
  • A New Bedford Voyage!
    Funding in Part by: ECHO - Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations The Jessie B. DuPont Fund A New Bedford Voyage! 18 Johnny Cake Hill Education Department New Bedford 508 997-0046, ext. 123 Massachusetts 02740-6398 fax 508 997-0018 new bedford whaling museum education department www.whalingmuseum.org To the teacher: This booklet is designed to take you and your students on a voyage back to a time when people thought whaling was a necessity and when the whaling port of New Bedford was known worldwide. I: Introduction page 3 How were whale products used? What were the advantages of whale oil? How did whaling get started in America? A view of the port of New Bedford II: Preparing for the Voyage page 7 How was the whaling voyage organized? Important papers III: You’re on Your Way page 10 Meet the crew Where’s your space? Captain’s rules A day at sea A 24-hour schedule Time off Food for thought from the galley of a whaleship How do you catch a whale? Letters home Your voice and vision Where in the world? IV: The End of the Voyage page 28 How much did you earn? Modern whaling and conservation issues V: Whaling Terms page 30 VI: Learning More page 32 NEW BEDFORD WHALING MUSEUM Editor ECHO Special Projects Illustrations - Patricia Altschuller - Judy Chatfield - Gordon Grant Research Copy Editor Graphic Designer - Stuart Frank, Michael Dyer, - Clara Stites - John Cox - MediumStudio Laura Pereira, William Wyatt Special thanks to Katherine Gaudet and Viola Taylor, teachers at Friends Academy, North Dartmouth, MA, and to Judy Giusti, teacher at New Bedford Public Schools, for their contributions to this publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Modern Whaling
    This PDF is a selection from an out-of-print volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: In Pursuit of Leviathan: Technology, Institutions, Productivity, and Profits in American Whaling, 1816-1906 Volume Author/Editor: Lance E. Davis, Robert E. Gallman, and Karin Gleiter Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBN: 0-226-13789-9 Volume URL: http://www.nber.org/books/davi97-1 Publication Date: January 1997 Chapter Title: Modern Whaling Chapter Author: Lance E. Davis, Robert E. Gallman, Karin Gleiter Chapter URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c8288 Chapter pages in book: (p. 498 - 512) 13 Modern Whaling The last three decades of the nineteenth century were a period of decline for American whaling.' The market for oil was weak because of the advance of petroleum production, and only the demand for bone kept right whalers and bowhead whalers afloat. It was against this background that the Norwegian whaling industry emerged and grew to formidable size. Oddly enough, the Norwegians were not after bone-the whales they hunted, although baleens, yielded bone of very poor quality. They were after oil, and oil of an inferior sort. How was it that the Norwegians could prosper, selling inferior oil in a declining market? The answer is that their costs were exceedingly low. The whales they hunted existed in profusion along the northern (Finnmark) coast of Norway and could be caught with a relatively modest commitment of man and vessel time. The area from which the hunters came was poor. Labor was cheap; it also happened to be experienced in maritime pursuits, particularly in the sealing industry and in hunting small whales-the bottlenose whale and the white whale (narwhal).
    [Show full text]
  • Sink Or Swim : the Economics of Whaling Today
    Sink or Swim : The Economics of Whaling Today A Summary Report produced by WWF and WDCS Based on a study by Economics for the Environment Consultancy (eftec) Published in June 2009 eftec report written by Dr Rob Tinch and Zara Phang A copy of the full report by eftec can be found on both WWF and WDCS websites - http://www.panda.org/iwc http://www.wdcs.org/publications.php "The whaling industry, like any other industry, has to obey the market. If there is no profitability, there is no foundation for resuming with the killing of whales." Einar K. Guðfinsson, former Minister of Fisheries, Iceland, 2007 BACKGROUND Whales have been hunted commercially for centuries. Historically, the main demand was for oil made from their blubber, which was used for fuel. In 1946, the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) was signed, subsequently establishing the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to regulate whaling and conserve whale stocks. The IWC started out essentially as a whalers’ club, with only 15 members, all of which were whaling nations. It had no provisions to detect and punish over-hunting and it paid scant attention to the sustainability of whaling. The results were disastrous for whales. Some species, such as blue and right whales, were hunted to near extinction; reduced to less than 5 per cent of their original population abundance. Yet it must be seen in the context of its time, which far pre-dated any environmental or conservation treaties, or awareness of the need to utilise wild species sustainably. In 1982, a growing conservation movement within the IWC secured a ban on commercial whaling.
    [Show full text]
  • Gender in the Early-Modern Japanese Whaling Industry
    Heroic Whalers Hunting Whale-Mothers: Gender in the Early-Modern Japanese Whaling Industry Jakobina Arch Abstract: This paper reconsiders the overwhelmingly masculine business of whaling in Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868) and the ways that gender played a role in the process of whaling, in the uses of some of its products, and in ideas about whales themselves. The gender divisions within whaling groups paradoxically are often overlooked because women barely appear in Japanese whaling sources. While other nations' whaling industries were also centered on men, baleen had a major influence on women's fashion in Europe and America. However, Japanese uses of baleen remained within the more male-centered cultural sphere. At the same time, rethinking Japanese whaling as a gendered practice helps explain the ways that whales themselves were equated with women through cultural expectations about women's roles like caring for children. The intersectionality of shared marine environments and cultural specifics explored here highlights the importance of considering both labor and gender roles within maritime spaces. As maritime historian Lisa Norling notes, "Seafaring has traditionally for centuries, maybe for millennia been one of the most rigidly and completely gender segregated of all forms of labor."1 As a result, stereotypes associated with seafaring are so thoroughly male that the gender divide has become naturalized and ahistorical. And as Elliott Gorn points out for the American whaling industry, "so long as virtually men alone were whalers, we do not bother to think about gender...why did this particular occupation end up being so gendered that we hardly can imagine it otherwise[?]"2 The same could be asked about whaling in early modern Japan (approximately concurrent with the Tokugawa period, 1603-1868), where nearly all of the sources about whaling focus on men, leaving the question of women's roles generally ignored.
    [Show full text]
  • Science Or Slaughter? Two Opposing Views on Japanese Whaling: a Critical Discourse Analysis
    Science or Slaughter? Two Opposing Views on Japanese Whaling: A Critical Discourse Analysis. Jason Peppard An assignment for Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics Module 1 - Written Discourse March 2007 Centre for English Language Studies Department of English UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM Birmingham B15 2TT United Kingdom WD/06/04 Choose two news / current affairs texts, one from English-speaking media (e.g. a British or American TV news report, an Australian newspaper, etc) and the other from a media outlet in another country / language, but both dealing with the same ‘global’ events (e.g. the war in Iraq, the Asian Tsunami…). Critically discuss the two texts with reference to CDA (see Written Discourse unit 7). What differences in the representation of events, and in relations with the intended audience, can be identified? How might any such differences be related to underlying cultural and/or ideological issues? Estimated word count: 4445 1 1.0 Introduction This paper aims to identify and discuss cultural and/or ideological differences concerning the same ‘global’ event in media texts from two different countries, one from an English media outlet and the other from a non-English country. The texts will be analyzed from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective. The topic to be discussed in this critical analysis is Japanese whaling. Japanese whaling, and whaling in general, has become an increasingly controversial topic over the years. Although only a handful of countries actively hunt whales, a great deal of media coverage and ensuing controversy resurfaces each time a new hunting season begins. Those opposed to whaling make arguments on ecological and moral grounds: Some species of whales are considered endangered which creates ecological debate while others claim that it is morally wrong to kill and eat whales since they are generally considered to be highly intelligent and sentient creatures.
    [Show full text]
  • By ROBERT F. HEIZER
    SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 133 Anthropological Papers, No. 24 Aconite Poison Whaling in Asia and America An Aleutian Transfer to the New World By ROBERT F. HEIZER 415 . CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 419 Kamchatka Peninsula-Kurile Islands 421 Japan 422 Koryak 425 Chukchee 426 Aleutian Islands 427 Kodiak Island region 433 Eskimo 439 Northwest Coast 441 Aconite poison 443 General implications of North Pacific whaling 450 Appendix 1 453 The use of poison-harpoons and nets in the modern whale fishery 453 The modern use of heavy nets in whale catching 459 Bibliography 461 ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES 18. The whale fishery of the Greenland Eskimo 468 19. Greenland whales and harpoon with bladder 468 20. Cutting up the whale, Japan 468 21. Dispatching the already harpooned and netted whale with lances, Japan 468 22 Japanese whalers setting out nets for a whale 468 23. The whale hunt of the Aleuts 468 23a. Whale hunt of the Kodiak Island natives (after de Mofras) 468 TEXT FIGURES 56 Whaling methods in the North Pacific and Bering Sea (map) 420 57. Whaling scenes as represented by native artists 423 58. Whaling scenes according to native Eskimo artists 428 59 South Alaskan lance heads of ground slate 432 60. Ordinary whale harpoon and poison harpoon with hinged barbs 455 417 ACONITE POISON WHALING IN ASIA AND AMERICA AN ALEUTIAN TRANSFER TO THE NEW WORLD By Robert F. Heizer INTRODUCTION In this paper I propose to discuss a subject which on its own merits deserves specific treatment, and in addition has the value of present- ing new evidence bearing on the important problem of the interchange of culture between Asia and America via the Aleutian Island chain.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter I Whales Saved the Japanese
    Chapter I Whales Saved the Japanese History of the Japanese love for whales: the Jomon and Yayoi periods The Japanese have been closely tied to whales from ancient times. Whale meat eating goes back a remarkably long way. A great number of bones of cetaceans have been unearthed from various areas including graves and shell mounds of the Jomon period, about 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. “Shell mounds” suggests at least that people in the Jomon period were collecting shell fish as food, which is nowhere near the fact. Subsequently, whale meat was selected as food since, more than anything, whale meat is delicious, which I would like to point out here. Once you eat whale meat, its good taste remains with you, making you want to eat it again. In addition, one whale can feed hundreds or even thousands of people at a time. Furthermore, the bones can be processed into tools and, moreover, bones, teeth, fins and baleen can all be used. Stoneware unearthed from Tsugumenohana Site, Nagasaki Prefecture (Source: Tsugumenohana Iseki no Gaiyo (Overview of Tsugumenohana Site), Shobayashi M. and Baba , Bulletin of the Nagasaki Archaeological Society Vol. 2) 1 Whale’s intervertebral disk used as a workbench for pottery (Unearthed from Saga Site / Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture) The flesh of whales contains large amounts of excellent protein and, considering the dietary habits in those days, eating whale meat could have been dramatically vitalizing. That is why, for ages, the Japanese have been tied to whales. From the shell mound of the Tsugumenohana Site in Hirado City, Nagasaki Prefecture, which has been dated to between the early and the middle phases of the Jomon period, the skeletal remains of many whales, dolphins and sharks have been unearthed.
    [Show full text]
  • THE FUTURE of SCIENTIFIC WHALING in the ANTARCTIC Analysis of the Responses of the International Whaling Commission and Japan to the ICJ Judgment on Whaling
    THE FUTURE OF SCIENTIFIC WHALING IN THE ANTARCTIC Analysis of the responses of the International Whaling Commission and Japan to the ICJ judgment on whaling By Iris van Gerwen Thesis submitted to Tilburg University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts: Liberal Arts and Sciences, Major Law in Europe July 2017 Thesis Supervisor: prof. C.J. Bastmeijer 1 Abstract Over the years, whaling has been looked at from different viewpoints and today, this is still the case. Some countries consider whales to be natural marine resources; others believe them to be inherited from past generations and that it is our duty to protect them for the future. In this thesis, the aftermath of the 2014 “Whaling in the Antarctic” judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will be discussed. The thesis aims to find the answer to the following main research question: “What have been the responses to the “Whaling in the Antarctic, Australia v Japan (New Zealand intervening)” case in respect to (scientific) whaling, both from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and from Japan with regards to its other scientific research programmes?”. Making use of the ICJ Judgment of the case, IWC documents, and other academic sources this question will be discussed, using JARPA II and NEWREP-A, the two latest Japanese scientific whaling programmes, as examples. The conclusion is that within the system of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, not much has changed in the years following the landmark “Whaling in the Antarctic” case. In contrast, Japan has taken the judgment into account by Japan when developing NEWREP-A.
    [Show full text]