whaling

It is rare that I find a piece in a newspaper written by a journalist that is well researched and illustrates a sound and critical analysis of the issue being addressed. Opinion pieces and guest editorials (usually by academics, some activists and some pundits—as they are called in North America) often provide this. In recent days i found such a piece by Peter Hartcher, the 'political editor' for Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, titled Japan's fading appetite for a fight.

It has quietened down of late, though the controversy surrounding Japanese whaling in the Pacific emerged again a few months ago. Public debate was bolstered by both the renewed action of Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace (particularly Sea Shepherd volunteers boarding the Yushin Maru No.2 and subsequently being ‘kidnapped’ in January) and the Australian Governments talk of undertaking surveillance of the Japanese Fleet (Air and Sea). Criticism of Japanese whaling largely stems from opposition to eating whales based on whales being majestic creatures, bundled in with the myth of a scientific basis for Japanese whaling and the protection of endangered species. Similar arguments to the former are made against the killing of Dolphins for human consumption.