Speech for prevention of whaling SPCA

Japan has a long history of whaling, dating back to the eighth century, when Emperor Jimmu, had the first taste of whale meat recorded from a old book, Kojiki. As of now, whaling in Japan has gone to dangerous levels, with Japan turning to the West for new methods of whaling. Japanese relationship with whales is strong, and from a story, a daughter was given a whale as a bride. With anything from the skin to the meat usable, it was going to be a huge problem as many whales started to be killed for commercial uses, quoting a famous proverb "There is nothing to throw away from a whale except its voice."

Whales are useful, they are a great source of protein after the nuclear bombs devastated Japan and food was scarce. The teeth are also known as sea ivory, which are carved into beautiful statues or etched with ink, made into pieces of art. The blubber is fine and free of any impurities allowing it to be used as a lubricant, or even heavily processed into cosmetic products.

In 1986, a commercial ban of whaling was introduced following a whopping 226000 tonnes being consumed in 1962. Yet Japan under the term of "research"were aiming to capture and kill at least 1,000 whales, including many endangered species, the largest whaling expedition ever in 2007. This is a large jump from 200 in 1985. The entire fleet of ships, proud of leading the expedition, ignored many countries advice on stopping the killing of whales. It had also received strong opposition from environmentalists and conservation groups. What is there to be "proud" of? Having the fate of all whales lying at your feet? Eating away the population of a species, driving them to extinction? Leading the entire fleet of ships to prepare for mass genocide? There is not much pride in taking away lives, especially when there is a already dwindling population of whales.

Many have reservations about the hunt having any scientific value. Japan said hunting of whales would not have an impact on whale populations, but non lethal forms of treatment, allowing the whale to survive, could produce the same effects.

But would it all be the Japanese fault? Whaling technology evolved from the United States and Britain in Europe. Implementation of whaling was also a move by them, industrializing so rapidly causing the once common whale to nearly disappear off the face of the Earth. Would the Japanese done the same?

There is hypocrisy and deception in Japanese research, probably the whales were hunted for commercial uses. If we work towards saving whales from Japanese tradition, we would know we did our part in saving endangered species .