Whale Wars

I confess, watching the cable TV show Whale Wars on Animal Planet is a guilty pleasure.   It's one round after another of chase and confrontation in the remote, southern Pacific ocean,  between Japanese whalers and ships of the Sea Shepard Conservation Society, led by Paul Watson.  As reality TV, it works because there is something precious at stake in every episode. That would be the lives of the whales being hunted by the Japanese.  It's people who want to kill whales versus people who want to protect them. The stories are told from the perspective of Watson and his whale defenders. Without question, they are the ones who occupy the high ground in this ongoing struggle. Japanese officials have refused requests from Whale Wars producers to include their perspective.

It's hard to understand why anyone is hunting whales in 2012. Whaling was banned  by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) about two decades ago.  Whaling nations are under treaty obligations to abide by the IWC ruling. The Japanese have weaseled their way around that by claiming they are hunting whales for research, not commercial purposes. Nobody is fooled by this ruse. But until a few years ago, down in rhe chilly waters close to the antarctic, the Japanese did their 'research' without challenge.

Again the question is, why are the Japanese doing it?  Surveys indicate that less than five percent of the Japanese population eats whale meat.  Even when done for 'research', Japanese whaling produces more whale meat than their people consume. Financially, it has to be a loser.  It seems, at least in part, it's a generational thing. Young Japanese are not fans of whaling, It's the older ones, especially the old guys,  who arrogantly defend their right to kill whales.

Moreover, the Japanese flauting of the IWC whaling ban has emboldened the Norweigians, Icelanders, and more recently, the South Koreans to launch their own 'research' whaling operations.  What the Japanese and their imitators never tell you is what they are researching. What do they learn that they don't already know by killing more whales?

I was in Japan, in Osaka, a few years ago to shoot a segment for a video production.  Now, I have to say, there is a lot to admire about the Japanese. Their culture is very well ordered, and their technology is second to none. I traveled on a 'shinkansen' bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka. It was a marvel. Anyway, the first evening in Osaka after hours in a hotel bar, I experienced my own confrontation about whaling. I was invited to share a drink with a big boss from the government agency relevant to the technology I was showcasing.  It started out very friendly. My hosts were much more enthusiastic 'drinkers' than me, and I was dealing with jetlag to boot. Out of the blue, the big boss goes off on me about whaling. Why don't Americans like whaling?  You have no right to challenge us about whaling, he said politely but very firmly.   I responded that I was opposed to whaling personally. But, your people in the north (he was referring to Eskimos) have been killing them for thousands of years, he said.  I said, yes, for them its about survival.  Not anymore, he said.   It was getting very uncomfortable.  It was me and about twelve Japanese, including the big boss, whom all the rest worked for.  The big boss was clearly intent on showing off for his minions by hammering me for being an anti-whaling foreigner.  I stayed calm and tried to give as good as I was getting. The whole thing got pretty intense. In the end, I extracted myself by pleading exhaustion from jetlag.

Even today, no one should underestimate the fervor behind the Japanese government's defense of whaling. But, it is not representative of the Japanese people. More than anything, its a bunch of old guys, who think they're defending the national pride.  At worst, the younger Japanese are indifferent to whaling, and in fact, more than a few, speak out against it.

But, I digress.  I was talking about the guilty pleasure of Whale Wars.

On one side, you've got the Japanese antarctic whaling fleet. with something like four fast catcher vessels. The catcher finds a pod of whales, mostly fin, minke, or sei whales, then chases after them until they are exhausted. At that point, a guy standing in the bow of the catcher vessel fires an explosve tipped harpoon into one defenseless whale after another.  Then the catcher boat drags the dead whales to a larger factory ship.  The dead animals are lauled onto the big ship's deck, where workers use pike sized flencing knives to  reduce the whale carcassses in minutes to small pieces, for sale later to Japanese consumers.   The slaughter is ugly, but deadly efficient.

For many years, the Sea Shepard Society has had a presence in the whaling regions of the southern ocean.  It didn't have much of an impact until five years ago when Discovery's Animal Planet cable TV channel  started broadcasting, Whale Wars.   The series is now seen all over the world.  The money generated from the production has been used to expand the effort. They now have several ships capable of managing the rough weather in the southern oceans. The central figure in the TV series is Paul Watson.  He is surrounded by young men and women from many nations, a lot of them novices at seafaring. All appear to be courageous and totally committed to stopping the slaughter of whales.

The campaign being waged on Whale Wars has reached a point that the Japanese government is sending out large vessels to shadow the Sea Shepard boats and prevent them from interfering with whaling operations.  Last year's most harrowing episode featured a Japanese ship ramming and sinking a much smaller Sea Shepard vessel.

Most of the time, reality TV is mindless dreck. Case in point: anything Khardasian.  But Whale Wars is reality TV with a noble purpose. At times,  it can get very intense.  Other times,  the drama seems a bit contrived.  That's okay with me.   By watching the show, I'm helping to keep it on the air and helping to maintain the revenue stream that comes from the broadcasts.   The Japanese whalers and the government agency that is underwriting them have to be losing money. How long are they going to stay in this pissing contest if there's no money in it for them?  The younger generation of Japanese don't have much appetite for their government's support of whaling.  If Paul Watson and his  band of young whale warriors are able to keep up the fight long enough, they will prevail.   That's reason enough to tune in Friday nights for the latest episode of Whale Wars.

Here is a link to a teaser for Whale Wars.

http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/whale-wars/videos/videos.htm