Whales are among the largest, most intelligent, and most interesting creatures on Earth. These creatures should be preserved and not killed by human means. Humans are killing whales for things like meat, cultural tradition, and of course, profit. In the dawn of man, whales were hunted for essential reasons, but today whale products are much less necessary. Killing these amazing creatures is wrong for many reasons. This article discusses the three main disadvantages of whaling: the inhumane methods of killing whales, the fact that many are endangered and on the verge of extinction, and the loss of creatures of very high intelligence and value that are fascinating to study and to learn from. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe practice of whaling uses a range of weapons to kill a whale, some are more humane than others but these methods can never guarantee a single lethal shot every time. Weapons used include harpoon cannons with pentrite grenades and large-caliber rifles. What happens if the whale isn't killed on the first shot? The whale suffers and may escape injured, making it a "hit and miss" whale. These injured whales can die slowly and painfully or continue to live with incredible and debilitating injuries. There are many cases of whales like these. In the Greenland narwhal hunt “hit and lost animals add an average of 42% to harvest statistics for the period 1954-1998” (Rommel, 4). In a recent Greenland whale hunt there were “13 whales hit and lost in 2011, two had a good chance of survival, eight had a poor chance of survival and three died” (Suydam, 3). These whales were not killed with the first shot or even with a second shot, they escaped injured. Most of these whales were seriously injured or killed as a result of their injuries and were not killed by humans. There are some whales that are actually killed on the first strike, but it can actually be difficult to determine whether a whale is in serious pain or dead. Whales can store large amounts of oxygen and shut down organs to appear dead to the human eye and instruments when in reality they are still alive and experiencing intense, inhuman pain (Rommel, 5). The International Whaling Committee has some factors to help determine if a whale is dead and insensitive to pain, including “Relaxation of the lower jaw; Or no fin movement; Or, sink without active movement” (Rommel, 5). As you might imagine, a whale could go undetected by humans and still be alive and suffering incredibly. The harpoons used actually explode when contact is made with the whale's body, this should kill the whale instantly, but a struck whale can suffer for agonizing minutes or hours (“The Fallacy of Humane Killing,” 3). If a whale does not appear dead from the explosion, a whaler might shoot it with a rifle. This can cause more pain to the whale if the blow is not fatal and increases the inhumanity of the action. These killing methods were worse. These now banned methods include cold harpoons and electric lances. A cold harpoon is one shot at a whale and does not explode, it usually only kills the whale if a vital organ is hit and very rarely this type of method causes instant death, the whale is almost certain to suffer for long periods of time ( “The Fallacy of Humane Killing”, 4). The electric method was used by the Japanese topreserve whale meat. An exploding harpoon can cause damage or loss of flesh, while electrocuting the whale cannot. This electrocution is very inhumane as the pain is so intense. Many whales are protected, endangered, critically endangered or extinct. Whaling has become increasingly risky even when quotas are regulated; “At the June 2005 meeting of the International Whaling Commission, the Japanese government controversially announced its intention to add endangered Antarctic fin whales and endangered humpback whales to its annual shopping list, and double its quota for minke whales” (“Whaling on Trial: Vindication!”, 8). These whales should be protected because they are not very abundant. Why are they killed? This only puts them in further danger. A study on whaling in Antarctica concluded that “blue and fin whales have been reduced by 95-99% due to whaling” (“Campaign Whale,” 6). Many countries are to blame, but that doesn't matter now, what matters is that we care about preserving all whale species from whaling. Pregnant women, mothers and baby whales are killed even though it is prohibited (Suydam, 4). How can a whaler be sure that the whale being targeted is a male? In many species the male and female are indistinguishable. If a mother is killed, the calf will likely starve because the mother is not present to provide milk and care. Whales repopulate slowly, females becoming sexually mature between the ages of 4 and 12 and calves every 3 or 4 years (Clapham, 46). The decline and elimination of whale populations will have an unintended effect on the ecosystem. Whales are top predators and eat krill, zooplankton and small fish. A single blue whale can consume 40 million tons of krill per day (Lian, 2). Without these whales, krill and small fish populations would grow out of control and cause a major shift in energy flow and the food chain. Other organisms in the ecosystem are also likely to be affected. There may be an increase or decrease in the number of organisms that depend directly or indirectly on whales. This type of change in an ecosystem is usually quite destructive. A depletion of whale feces can also impact not only the ecosystem but the world. Whale feces provide nutrients to phytoplankton which utilize carbon dioxide in the air. It is estimated that 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide are pulled from the air due to whale feces (Lian, 2). This creates cleaner air in the atmosphere used by other organisms to maintain life. Even the dead carcass of a whale is vital to ecosystems. When the body sinks to the ocean floor, many deep-sea feeders live off the carcass for long periods of time (Lian, 2). These organisms include sharks, crabs, worms, clams, corals, anemones, squid, isopods, bacteria, snails, and other scavengers (Switek, 3). If there were fewer whales dying and sinking naturally, these dependent organisms would lose a food source that could wipe out a species. Whales are extremely intelligent, so intelligent that they are actually considered non-human persons by special rights. These rights would be granted to whales, dolphins, and porpoises because “they are so highly evolved and complex in terms of behavior that they deserve special protection with a universal bill of rights” (Connor, 2). India recently officially granted these rights to dolphins as of May 24, 2013 (Anagirlempath, 1). Dolphins and whales have many cognitive abilities that determine their personalitiessuch as self-awareness, concern for others, culture, and language (Anagirlempath, 1). Thomas I. White received his doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University and recently published a book on the subject. White states that “Personality” is a philosophical concept that helps classification remain impartial to species (White, chapter 6). White also says that people are beings who: are alive and aware of their environment, have the ability to experience pleasure and pain, have emotions and a sense of self, control their actions, recognize other people and treat them appropriately , and have a variety of behaviors. higher-order intellectual abilities, scientific research on dolphins shows that they have all of these characteristics (White, chapter 6). For this reason, dolphins are indisputably people and have “moral stature” (White, chapter 6). This makes killing whales immoral because they have such a “moral standing.” These rights, as in India, make killing and illegal imprisonment possible. Whales are also fascinating for their social intelligence. There are cases where “non-relatives form large hunting parties with long-lasting bonds, specialized tasks, tool use, and gender equity. Their haunting songs and social chatter also suggest that an undeciphered intelligence echoes across our oceans” (Sharpe, 2008). There may be different dialects of the sonar “click” produced by whales and dolphins. These accents are quite distinguishable and show the complexity of the intellect required to establish such a communicative phenomenon. Humpback whales are famous for their mating songs. These songs are complex with different sounds, rhythms and tones. These whales are intelligent enough to remember and reproduce the same song years later. Biologists find "more than 500 humpback whale songs and found that more than 35 percent of the compositions contain rhyming sounds, which scientists believe may be mnemonic devices to help the whales learn and remember songs" ("Rhymes Discovered in Whale Songs..”,1).Their intelligence gives them the advanced abilities to connect deeply through social means. These are probably members of the whale family or community are permanent. Orcas form strong lifelong bonds with their families. They often share meals together (H, 9). whaling. One is the demand for high-priced whale products and products in countries like Japan, where whale meat is a delicacy and where the wealthy own other whale-related items. There are communities in major whaling countries, especially Japan and Norway, that focus on whaling. As for the demand for whale meat and products, it seems that Japan is losing interest: “whaling is dying in the hearts, minds, stomachs, wallets and markets of Japan” (Ramage, 1). In Japan, people are losing their desire for whales, but frozen supplies of whale meat are increasing. A study was conducted which found that “88.8% of Japanese have not purchased whale meat in the past 12 months, while only 27% of respondents expressed support for whaling and only 11 % said they strongly supported it” (PR Newsline, 2 ). The desire and demand for whale products is reducing the need for whale hunting. Data like this doesn't help support whaling, but it does help decrease and eliminate whaling. Another.