Jordan Burke: Let's put an end to this brutal killing of whales

COMMENT

The burgeoning whale-watching industry is busily preparing for another bumper season, with humpback, orca, sperm and other whales returning to these waters.

Yet this eco-tourism boom, a direct result of the regeneration of whale numbers since whaling was banned in New Zealand, is not enough to protect these wonders of the deep from ongoing cruelty and suffering at the hands of international whalers.

Disturbingly, the organisation that imposed a ban on commercial whaling in 1986, the International Whaling Commission, does not intend to even consider cruelty to whales at its annual meeting in Italy, which starts on July 19.

This is a worrying omission because more than 20,000 whales have been killed since the ban came into force and several countries exploit loopholes in IWC legislation to continue slaughtering a variety of cetacean species.

A global anti-whaling coalition, led by animal welfare group the World Society for the Protection of Animals, has begun a campaign to make the welfare of whales a major issue for the IWC. It is concerned that if whale welfare is not on the July meeting agenda, there is a risk the moratorium will be lifted.

Pro-whaling countries argue that an overall increase in the whale population is reason enough to lift the ban. This could ultimately threaten New Zealand's whale-watching industry, but more importantly have immense cruelty implications for the world's whales.

The society is also alarmed at the considerable international whaling activity occurring outside the IWC, and the scant respect from whaling nations for the commercial whaling ban and for the IWC as a governing body.

Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have already developed their own whale management body, the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission, and Japan has explored the possibility of forming a similar body in the Pacific. One can only imagine that welfare considerations will carry even less weight at such management bodies than they have done at annual IWC meetings since the commission was created in 1946.

Whalers from Norway and Japan have taken advantage of the loopholes in the IWC ban to slaughter more than 1400 whales annually for so-called scientific research. Iceland also recently resumed whaling under the guise of research.

The meat from these "scientific" whaling operations is ultimately intended for human consumption, but, unlike farm animals slaughtered for food, there exist no regulations governing the killing methods. The result is an industry that employs virtually the same killing methods as it did in the 19th century - grenade-tipped harpoons that even the most experienced of gunners find difficult to use to instantaneously kill a whale.

During Japan's 2002-03 minke whale hunt in Antarctica, a paltry 40 per cent of whales were killed instantly. Most experienced agonising deaths as a second harpoon or a rifle was used to finish them off.

Too many whales, which boast high intelligence and complex social structures, endure up to an hour or more of unbearable pain before dying.

Many whales are simply "struck and lost" during a hunt, an impassive term describing a whale that has been horribly wounded but manages to escape death, only to carry debilitating or possibly fatal injuries.

Inadequate killing methods designed and tested on the relatively small minke whale are commonly used regardless of the species, size or physical anatomy of the whale, and may dramatically increase the time a larger species, such as a fin or sperm whale, takes to die.

If this type of extreme suffering and inefficiency were commonplace in our abattoirs, the public condemnation of the meat industry would be so unanimous and severe as to force an instant end to such inhumane slaughter, and the immediate introduction of the strictest regulations to ensure a quick, painless and, therefore, humane, kill.

Curiously, though, the whaling industry has remained largely unchallenged and unregulated for centuries, and continues to inflict on these highly evolved and unique creatures a level of pain too overwhelming to comprehend.

Measuring such suffering is made difficult by whaling nations differing on the methods used to determine the moment of death of a whale, and often failing to provide accurate data on the time whales take to die.

Furthermore, the IWC does not acknowledge important contributing factors to suffering in its assessment of cruelty, including the physical damage of a long pursuit and the effect a killing can have on the group.

The society's campaign faces the tough challenge of bringing cruelty issues back to the fore while calling for a halt to all whaling operations and maintaining the current ban on commercial whaling.

At its heart is a comprehensive new report, Troubled Waters, which provides a wealth of scientific and practical evidence brought together for the first time to highlight the true extent of the cruelty inherent in the modern-day killing of whales.

In a foreword, naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough describes how the report contains "hard scientific evidence that there is no humane way to kill a whale at sea".

Physician Dr Harry Lillie was more emotive in his first-hand description of whaling after he accompanied whalers on an Antarctic hunting trip more than half a century ago: "If we can imagine a horse having two or three explosive spears stuck in its stomach and being made to pull a butchers truck through the streets while it pours blood into the gutter, we shall have an idea of the method of killing."

Ironically, the most powerful argument for stopping this cruel and unnecessary practice comes from gunners themselves. Speaking to Dr Lillie on that same Antarctic trip, the gunners admitted that if whales could scream, the industry would stop, for nobody would be able to stand it.

More than 50 years on, the whales are still silently screaming, and it is up to the international community and the IWC to push for the only solution - a permanent end to whaling.

* Jordan Burke, a former media adviser and spokesman for Britain's RSPCA, is an animal welfare media consultant.