Show
Date: February 22, 2006
Pam Eastlick for THE DEEP on line
“A’Fishin’ for
the Whale”
A Whole Different Song
Welcome to The Deep science and technology
column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and
beyond. Join us each week on Newstalk K57 on Wednesday night from
7 to 8 p.m. for exciting live science expeditions or listen live
on our web site www.thedeepradioshow.com
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Many of us remember “The bonny ship,
the Diamond goes a’fishin’ for the whale”,
from the era of folk music. Many traditional folk songs
deal with whaling. The harvesting of whales during the 18th
and 19th centuries did much to open up the entire world
to new ideas and new cultures and create the global economy
the world enjoys today.
Whale oil and other related products were much used, needed
and coveted in earlier times and could only be obtained
by killing whales. Moby Dick and his kindred not only provided
great literature, but the grease that kept the wheels of
the industrial revolution turning. |
| But times change. In the 20th century, we humans
began to realize that we had vastly overfished the ocean’s
whale populations at the same time that new petroleum-derived
products began to replace the previously irreplaceable whale
products. In 1986, an international moratorium against whaling
was accepted by most nations. |
But recently, Japan, one of the world’s great fishing
nations has begun to kill whales again, calling it ‘scientific
research’. Japan declared its intention to kill
almost 1,000 minke and fin whales in the waters off the
Antarctic this year. Last month, the Japanese whaling
fleet was shadowed across the Antarctic Ocean by boats
from Greenpeace. It was a dangerous journey. The squabbling
fleets accused each other of ramming after a collision
between boats from the opposing sides.
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Later, a Japanese boat harpooned a minke whale
over the top of a small Greenpeace vessel. The line caught
one of the Greenpeace activists and dragged him into the freezing
Antarctic Ocean. |
A most interesting question is “What happens to
the whale carcasses after the ‘scientific research’
has been conducted?” Well, a Japanese website advertises
whale meat as a “safe and healthy” pet food,
and whale meat is being sold in Japan at discounted prices
to be made in whale burgers for school lunches. It seems
that whale meat is popular among older Japanese who ate
it during the lean years after World War II, but has been
shunned by young Japanese.
Non-Japanese scientists have derided the value of the
Japanese ‘scientific research’ on whales as
useless and apparently, the majority of Japanese aren’t
interested in eating whale meat, so perhaps, the big question
is “Why do the Japanese insist on killing whales?”
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We may not come up with the answer, but you’ll learn a
lot about modern-day whaling when you join us this week on The
Deep. We’ll also be talking to the organizers of an important
conference called “Sharing the Fish”. This conference
will focus on the fish in the world ocean and how to manage them
to ensure that there are fish for our grandchildren.
The Deep is broadcast on Newstalk K57 every Wednesday night at
7:00 p.m. You can also listen live from our web site www.thedeepradioshow.com.
Join Jim Sullivan, Pam Eastlick, and Peter Melyan on the deepest
radio show on Earth.
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