by Tan Copsey
Something of a diplomatic incident is evolving in the waters off Antartica, as Japan, New Zealand, and a variety of gung-ho environmental groups, do battle for international opinion. Terrorist environmentalists face off against blood thirsty heartless b”$%ds, in a battle over the fate of old moby dick.
Moving swiftly past cliched pro and anti whaling arguments (I have an obvious sympathy for Whales, being both Welsh and a vegetarian). I’m struck by similarities between the Japanese ‘cultural’ argument (as outlined to me by a good friend who cheerfully admits to have eaten whale) and the arguments of some environmentalists. Proponents of this aspect of Japanese culture tacitly assume that culture can be non-static in the face of international norms, and Japanese whaling culture, with an arguably longer history, is assumed to trump a nascent environmental culture. Problem is, when two cultures of this sort come into direct opposition, especially when espoused by fundamentalists on both sides - not all Japanese regard Whaling as an intrinsic unalterable aspect of their culture, and even Greenpeace view Sea-Sheppard as extremist nut-cases, the results are unlikely to be good. Add in colonial era resentments, who was it who forced Whales to the edge of extinction – oh yeah those self-same self righteous European types, and the room for negotiated compromise disappears.
In the short term however anti-whaling types seem to have won Moby something of a reprieve, the factory ship damaged by fire last week may in fact have been the only vessel with on board capacity to process whale carcasses. But barring extreme outcomes that would ‘solve’ the problem, warming seas could alter the supply of nutrients on which krill, plankton and other tasty whale treats feed leaving little in the way of whales to worry us, this clash of cultures is set to continue on the high seas.
