The Pros And Cons Of International Whaling

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The International Whaling Commission (IWC), after decades of failing to protect whale populations with “sustainable whaling efforts” was forced to issue an outright ban in 1982. The International moratorium on whaling took effect 1986 when it was signed by 88 countries including Japan. However both Japan and Norway filed formal objections. Japan continued commercial whale hunts under the controversial “scientific research purposes” exemption and Norway has continued hunting whales as an outright defiance to the IWC ban, claiming that whaling is important to their culture. However Norway has also occasionally used the so called scientific permit to increase whaling activity. The IWC has no police force or enforcement body. If countries defy the ban or take advantage of loopholes there is nothing the IWC can do about it. Retrieved from, http://us.whales.org/issues/whaling-in-norway …show more content…
According to the World Wildlife Fund and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society report, the government of Norway has spent tens of millions of dollars to support the whaling industry and the report found that the subsidies are the only thing keeping the archaic industry afloat. What’s even more shocking is that the Norwegian people don’t like whale meat. The average consumer only ingests about a half a pound a year. The Norwegian government’s whale marketing campaign seeks to hock whale meat toward the young Norwegian population and unsuspecting tourists who come to festivals and travel on cruise ships. Whale lotion and other byproduct items promoted by the Norwegian government were also a flop. (2014. Brian