A whale of a time

AT THE INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION meeting last weekend, it was Japan against the whale. Thankfully, the world’s largest mammal won, and the ban on whale hunting remains. Now if Japan could only learn that no one much likes to eat whales, either -- not even in Japan.

Japan’s aim was to end the moratorium that has saved several species of whales from extinction. There was never any danger that Japan would be able to achieve its goal, because ending the ban requires the support of 75% of the nations that have signed on to it. But a simple majority passed a declaration that the moratorium is unnecessary.

Japan was able to woo developing nations to its side with the best argument of all: money. It provided aid for their fishing industries. Then it made sure they would attend the meeting by paying travel expenses. It also has threatened to form a new group to monitor the global whaling trade.

What’s curious is that Japan’s reasons for opposing the ban are more cultural than economic. The whaling industry has to be subsidized to stay alive in Japan, where it has political clout out of proportion to its size or popularity. Whale meat is still popular among members of Japan’s older, wealthier generation, who resent other nations telling them what they can’t eat. Japanese authorities have been trying to kindle a taste for whale in the younger generation as well, and thus provide a market for a dying industry.

The more dangerous consequences of Japan’s position are in small island and African nations. (People in the fishing industries there believe whales eat too many fish, leaving fewer for them to catch.) There will always be a limit to how much whale the Japanese want to eat. But there may be no limit to how much fish humans want to eat.

Whaling is a cruel and environmentally harmful occupation. The Japanese generation raised without whale is more interested in burgers than whale, despite the recent opening of a whaleburger joint in Tokyo. If Japan were willing to let go of a nearly extinct culinary tradition and allow popular taste to prevail, there would be no need for the shenanigans it’s trying to pull with the whaling commission.