Not many. Hunting by humans is the biggest threat to gray whales. Gray Whales have been hunted since the 16th century. Humans have been whaling gray whale species for over 4 decades now. This hunting has significantly reduced the gray whale populations. The north atlantic population of gray whales were totally wiped out due to whaling even before the 19th century. Around 1950, governments worldwide declared the gray whale as an endangered species and banned whaling them

Connecticut was an important shipbuilding and whaling state.

ice covering the surace is dangerous,they need to breathe

up the surface

There are 4 main countries that hunts for whales. They are; Faroe Islands, Norway, Iceland and Japan. However, the US kills about 50-60 whales a year for scientific research but it is done on selected coastal waters.

whale hunting mainly takes place in Japan. although it is quite common in smaller places as they do not have access to resources.

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The hunting grounds are far from Japan, but Japan and Norway are the two main commercial whaling nations now.

Whaling affects people because it leads to an imbalance in the marine ecosystem. This means that other parts of marine life affected, which affects the quality of water, and the presence of fish for human consumption.

Most whaling campaigners believe that whaling needs to stop due to 'whales' being an endangered species, or due to believing that the majesty, and beauty of these creatures warrants them a separate fate to other animals on the food chain. However, this is mostly down to lack of education on these matters. Whaling in Japan and Norway concentrates specifically on Minke whales, which are actually the most populous whale on the planet with around 1,000,000 worldwide. Japan and Norway both believe that it is their right to preserve their culture, as it is part of their national identity and other countries messing with that is in fact very offensive to them. Both countries use Minke whale as a food source, and have done for several hundred years (several thousand in Japan's case). In Japan, Minke whale is served in school dinners due to its high Iron content. In some cases Japan also hunts humpback whales, though less often, however these are also one of the most populous whales, and are by no means in danger of extinction. In my personal opinion, as long as an animal is not in danger of extinction, then its meat is fair game. Humans eat meat, and no animal is exempt, as they're all made of it. And you need to tolerate other cultures, as we're all in this world together. Japan have their ways, and they're set in them, just as you are set in your ways. My best example would be to say, imagine if a world organisation decided that cheer leading was sexist, and as a result the US, which had no say in this decision, had to abide by this decision and halt cheer leading at American football games. Americans would be in outrage because it's part of their culture. I'm a British man, and the monarchy is a part of my culture, I'd be offended if a 'world' organisation tried to tell me that my country, after THOUSANDS of years, wasn't allowed a monarchy. Having said that, legally Norway and Japan aren't required to stop, they're not breaking any laws, but Greenpeace 'wants' those laws in place. Why? Well as my post shows, Minke whales are actually in abundance, so the only other explanation is simply that Greenpeace are 'fans' of whales, and don't like the fact they are just animals, like cows, or fish, or pigs.

Whaling and other threats have led to at least 5 of the 13 great whales becoming endangered. Commercial whaling is subject to a moratorium by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). However, at the 2006 IWC meeting, the St. Kitts and Nevis Declaration, which protests the moratorium, was adopted by a slim majority.

'Whales' are not collectively endangered as there are 57 species of whale. Remember that whale is a genus and not a species, and the whale being hunted, 'Minke whale', is the most populous. Fabrications that whales are endangered are completely untrue. Whaling is an important part of some cultures, and what is important to people in those nations should be respected. Put your prejudices aside, I know that whales are beautiful and majestic, but they are also made of meat, and in the case of Minke, they are plentiful. Therefore, why shouldn't they be food? There is absolutely no reason, and no argument against this case.

Diversity is the key to survival of living things on earth, including humans. Diversity is key because when environmental changes (I mean natural changes as much as man made ones) or diseases specific to limited species occur, the ones who may be able to survive or be resistant to them are no longer there. As species of any kind disappear one by one, that diversity slowly shrinks. The point at which a species is reduced in number, and no longer has sufficient diversity of individuals within that species is unknown. It is also necessary to have sufficient numbers to reproduce and support the young for a species to survive.

There are some that use the argument that over millions of years that thousands of species disappeared but new species evolved so it's not a "crisis" when we loose a few hundred species per year. But that ignores the crossover effect of man's interference causing the extinction of species and man's interference in nature preventing new species from surviving and evolving. As the population of earth expands, and in the not too distant future, doubles from where we are now that environmental pressures will be twice as hard on nature as it is now. What are the chances of new species being able to evolve amidst that pressure?

Now for the whales, the writer above states for example, that Minke whales are plentiful. When we know that there could be an onset of a disease or an environmental factor that can suddenly decimate that population, and other whale species are on the decline, that mentality can lead to the eventual disappearance of whales of all kinds. Whales are only an example of the unnecessary destruction of species when we know the importance of diversity of all species to the survival of life on earth. That is not to say that I agree with Greenpeace or their methods, I don't know enough about them to agree or disagree with them. What I do know, is for humans to make a positive impact on our environment and for any possibility of reversing the damage already done, enough people will have to recognize and put into practice new ways of doing things.

This is a controversial issue, and a good answer must be balanced. The second answer stipulated that 'There is absolutely no reason, and no argument against this case.'

This is incorrect, and not balanced answer. This answer, and the first one, both raise many fair and correct points, but they also are just as one-sided as the arguments you would receive from Greenpeace or Seashepherd; what is certainly obvious is that the people who gave these answers either are lying or do not know all the facts.

Yes, it is true that Minke whales are numerous and much whaling centers around them. The first two answers seem to shun the whaling of other whales however, as the third answer pointed out, diversity is key to sustaining an environment, essentially the importance of having a large population is to counter both the increasing encroachment of human activity but also in case a disease of some kind attacks the given species, there is enough resistance within the combined gene pool to allow that species to survive.

The first two answers also talk about 'cultural heritage'. Japan's commercial whaling begun around the same time as Western Europe's did, the mid 1800's, and was centered on small coastal communities. Japan's antarctic whaling did not begin until the late 1930's. This of course is personal opinion, but I do not believe citing 'cultural heritage' is an excuse.

There are of course communities in Japan, Iceland, Greenland etc. which do have a proper right to

The anti-whaling reasoning generally ties down to three reasons:

1) Environmentalism: Some whales are endangered, and since many take a long time to age and reproduce, whaling can disrupt the environment. Normally, supporters of this view will not find any issue with aboriginal whaling, as they only kill a whale once in a while for food.

2) Animal welfare: Many supporters believe that there is no humane way to kill a whale. A harpooned whale often takes many minutes to die, in contrast to the ideal slaughterhouse where the animals are stunned and die without feeling pain. Proponents of this view usually say that whaling should be outlawed, with no exceptions. Whaling communities such as the Inuit are trying to find ways to make their hunts more humane, though many anti-whalers doubt if it can succeed.

3) Sentimentality: The media tends to glorify specific animals such as the ceteacans, horses and dogs. Additionally, science has shown that whales have spindle neurons, the neurons that give us several human traits. Many people feel that it is cruel to kill whales for these reasons.

Japan has slaughtered over 6,000 whales since commercial whaling was banned in 1986. The meat and other products obtained from this 'research' is sold as before.

Sharks don't die from whaling! Whales die from whaling Every year more than one thousand whales are killed by the Japanese ALONE.

But as for how many sharks die per year over 73 million sharks die per year just for their fins then are thrown back in the water and left to drown or bleed to death.

when you add everything together more than 80million sharks die per year. Sharks cant reproduce as fast as they are being killed. Please help save the sharks.

www.uwiu.net Support us! www.seashepherd.org/ Support our supporters!

And support our marine life!

Of course. Whaling is SUPER, I LOVE wahling sooo much - I want to grow up and be a part-time whaler :) (I would want to be a full-time whaler, but whaling doesn't pay much!)

With Japanese whaling it is an annual event, though it is not continuos- since they stop hunting during the breeding season. Japanese whalers are also trying to farm whales. Yet, weather it'll work/continue is still under debate since many people think it'll follow the same path as the Chinese panda breeding scheme.

No answering LOL

For humans, it isn't really. We wouldn't be much affected if they disappeared. But for whales as a species it is a big thing, since they breed very slowly. Doesn't take much killing before the overall numbers start to drop. And personally, I'd be sad to see them go. And I find the habit of killing long-lived, intelligent and social creatures quite questionable.

Whales were killed with a special kind of spear called a harpoon. They were cut up with tools called flensing knives.

stubb

5 products made out of whales are perfume, oil, whale soup

Commercial Whaling has been banned since 1986 by the International Whaling commission. However, scientific whaling is allowed to strict quotas.

Because whales were becoming endangered and there was moremoney to be made out of tourism around whales then hunting them down.

Tilikum was the whale who killed the trainer. He has killed three people. Two trainers and a homeless man. Tilikum started performing on March 30th, 2010 after his third death.

Whales in Antarctica are usually hunted under the pretext of "scientific research" to understand whales and their diets and thus improve their conservation. However, this type of research is unnecessary and detrimental. Additionally, because the whale meat is sold for consumption after the gut contents have been examined, it seems much more likely that the real reason whales are hunted is to be sold as a "luxury" food.

1500bc References to the consumption of whale meat date back to Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan, written in the eighth century.

A dangerous South American headland around which whaling ships of the 1880s dreaded sailing was Cape Horn.

A dangerous South American headland around which whaling ships of the 1880s dreaded sailing was Cape Horn.

Modern whaling in South Georgia began in 1904, the South Shetland Islands in 1906, in the South Orkneys in 1912, and in the Ross Sea in 1923.