Why Is Whaling Banned

An Exemption for Whaling

The Norwegian and Japanese have argued that they should be granted an exemption from the international ban on whaling, hunting for whales. They have asked for this exemption based on cultural positions. The Norwegians and Japanese argue that the species of whales they hunt are not endangered, not would the numbers that they hunt caused them to become endangered, and that these activities are a deep historically rooted cultural activity for their people. This brings up long rooted questions about international activities and how they impact local groups.

I do agree that the United Nations should grant an exemption to the International Whaling Ban for the Norwegian and Japanese people. I believe that this is in the spirit of the United Nations charter to not negatively impact the culture of any group of people. Also, if the argument from the Norwegian and Japanese governments is correct, and they species of whales they hunt are not endangered and are not likely to become so do to this hunting activities, then there is no reason to ban them. The banning of these activities arise mainly from the hearts of people that want to protect animals over cultural, religious and economic needs. This is not in the spirit of the United Nations …show more content…
This is certainly the case here. The majority opinion that weighs in on banning whaling activities is that we should protect the Whales. People around the world usually do not know enough about whales to separate the endangered species from the non-endangered species. So the majority decide that it is bad to hunt whales, despite the years of tradition and the economic factors involved. World opinion should always be considered, but when the opinion causes a negative impact on any group of people the opinion should not be weighed as heavy as the negative impact. Facts should be more important than opinion and we should protect people harmful situation based on