An Old Whale

So, the news is that a Bowhead whale killed in Alaska in May 2007 had embedded in the blubber around its neck, a 3 1/2 inch projectile that was shot at it more than a century ago.

They say that the projectile was probably shot at the whale from a shoulder gun around 1890.

Now I can understand that back in those days it was necessary for Alaskans to hunt whales for a living but nowadays, with so many resources at hand they could easily get food from another source.

They also say that whaling is part of their cultural heritage and it is important to preserve it.

Killing whales from a boat with a gun does nothing to preserve their heritage.

Now if they went out on a row boat and threw the harpoon to the whale with their owns hands and fought it the same way, then it could be consider more "preserving their heritage"

Unfortunately it has been estimated that since 1986, when the whaling moratorium was imposed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), 29,000 whales have been killed (most of them by Japan). a

And in today's world, whales are also killed by collisions with ships, entanglement in nets or from ingesting sea debris.

So it is debatable (to say the least), that the IWC recently renewed a hunting quota for the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, allowing 255 whales to be harvested by 10 Alaskan villages over five years.

The Bowhead whale with the projectile embedded in it's blubber survived the hunt in the 19Th century only to be killed over 100 years later in a similar attack.

This individual was one we should have help preserved, not killed.

Whales and dolphins face more threats today than in any other time in history, and most of those threats are the consequences of human activities

We should be working to save them, not to find a better way to hunt them.