Did You Know? Some Facts About Whaling

• According to the Humane Society, there is no way to humanely kill a whale. Whales suffer a tremendous amount of pain when they are hunted.
• Whales are intelligent and they live in families just like we do. Whales grieve when they lose a family member.
• No one will go hungry if we stop hunting whales. There are plenty of other food sources. 
• Currently, there are only 20,000 humpback whales in the ocean. Before commercial whaling, that number may have been as high as 1.5 million (Greenpeace).
• Whale blubber often contains PCBs and pesticides from the pollution in the ocean. Why would anyone want to eat toxic waste (Greenpeace)?
• There is no reason to kill whales for scientific research. They can be studied in their own environment without human interference. We can learn much more by observing live whales in their natural habitat.
• Whales cannot produce until they are 7 to 14 years of age. They cannot replenish themselves quickly like some other species (Whale-World). This is on reason why whaling has depleted the population so severely.
• Whales are a part of human culture. They are very important to many American Indian Tribes and are even mention in the Bible (Jonah and the whale). Humans would regret losing the whale if it became extinct.
• Humans and whales have a lot in common. We both inhabit several areas around the globe and we both travel around the world. We are also very social creatures.
• Whales have been around for over 55 million years (Whale-World), while humans have only been around for 100,000. What gives us the right to destroy a species that has been around for so long?

-Rachel Wright