Japanese whaling has been a topic of contention among anti whaling groups and organizations for many years.
Although the whaling era ended decades ago certain countries such as Japan have been known to continue to hunt these marine mammals, however Japan states that these efforts are not to sell their meat, but for another purpose which we’ll explain shortly.
In 1946 a number of countries began observing and monitoring the whaling industry in an attempt to minimize the number of unnecessary killings of marine mammal such as whales, dolphins and porpoises.
In 1986 a world moratorium on commercial whaling by the International Whaling Commission prohibited countries from continuing the practice of whaling with the exception of whaling for continued research purposes.
While Japan continues hunting whales under the moratorium research exemption many anti whaling organizations and activists believe that Japan is and has been using the whaling for research exemption as a loophole to continue hunting whales and selling their meat for consumption to those who enjoy eating meals that contain whale meat.
The whale is said to be captured so that research can be conducted on the species and after the research is completed the easiest way to dispose of the whale is to sell its meat.
The purpose of researching whales is to learn about their overall health, gain a better understanding of their anatomy and learn how their presence impacts the rest of the world and the food chain among other things.
As of January 2013 whale meat can still be found sold at certain supermarkets, restaurants and even schools located throughout countries such as Canada, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Indonesia, Japan, Russia and among certain indigenous communities located in the United States in Alaska.
Although whaling was once very popular among many counties including Japan today less and less people throughout Japan (and the rest of the world) are interested in the practice of whaling or the consumption whale meat.
In fact whaling has become so unpopular in Japan that the country has seen a 97% decrease in whaling from 1962 – 2013.
In 1962 Japan harvested 233,000 tons of whale meat for sale, while in 2013 it is projected that only 2,400 tons of whale meat is likely to be sold in the country because of low market demand according to information obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Eventually these trends may continue to decline until it is no longer profitable or wise to continue the practice of whaling in Japan.
While whaling is continuing to lose popularity in Japan the country could benefit both economically and in terms of tourism by shutting down their continuing whaling efforts and investing in whale watching tourism.
Not only would this help improve Japans image, it would also help bring in additional capital and tourists to the country.
In fact since its inception the whale watching industry has grown to a billion dollar annual business, which helps to employee thousands of workers and give millions of people an opportunity to observe these amazing animals in their natural habitat.