The people of the Faroe Islands have been under fire recently about a 1,000 year old tradition called the “grind” where hundreds of whales are herded into a bay by local whalers and slaughtered.  For a country that is, and I quote from the official website for whaling in the Faroe Islands, “...an island nation overwhelmingly dependent on what the sea can provide…”, why should the tradition stop now?  Whether the whale meat is greatly needed like it is said or not, it doesn’t matter.  The “grind” is still part of a culture that should not change with the times.  Whaling has the right to continue, because countries should be able to have dominion over the natural resources in their own territorial waters, whales’ resources are greatly needed by aboriginal tribes and can also be used by today's developed countries, and people should not interfere with other peoples cultures as long as it does not affect their lives.  In this writing, I will give the issues of whaling and a few possible solutions.

First off I will state that I agree that there are far too many whales killed commercially every year for no good reason, and are kept frozen for long periods of time to eventually spoil and get thrown out due to not enough demand in the market for the great amount of whales hunted.  On the other hand, I don’t think that commercial whaling should be halted altogether.   Whale meat can be eaten by the western world as a delicacy and by the eastern world as a common food found in many restaurants and supermarkets.  There would however have to be a quota to ensure that all of the whale is used; the one suggested by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) could be a start.  In the Time article “Could Lifting the Whaling Ban Save the Whales?”  by Brian Walsh, it is said “...a number of antiwhaling countries, including the U.S., have proposed a compromise deal that would seek to reduce the total number of whales slaughtered while giving nations a number of allowances…”.  This quota would guarantee the conservation and responsible hunting of whales if the whaling countries of the world would follow the quota.  Some might say that people don’t need whale meat at all.  This is true, but in all actuality, people don’t need red meat either and it is still a popular part of people’s diets.

In addition, for thousands of years Japan has hunted whales and for hundreds of years the countries of Iceland and Norway have whaled.  These countries have whaled  around the world outside of their waters and other countries around the world have gotten mad.  This is quite understandable as the whaling countries are affecting the rest of the world’s enjoyment of whales.  However, the whaling countries want to continue whaling.  This is a conflict of interest between wanting to preserve the whale population and wanting to harvest the crop of the whales.  As a matter of fact, the Whaling and Dolphin Conservation claims that  “The impact of the Moratorium 1985/86 has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of whales killed by the leading whalers.”.  The whales killed every year have already dramatically dropped.  Even with this point, I have a possible compromise that could be used along with, or completely without the quota suggested earlier in order to drop the whales hunted every year even more.  Nations should have access to all their country’s natural resources, unrestricted by international organizations as long as they use resources in their country’s territorial waters, as should be their right as an independent nation.  A country's territorial waters stretch 13.8 miles from that country’s baseline.   This would insure the survival of whales as whaling would be kept to a designated area, and whaling countries may happily continue to whale as they wish.  Once those countries’ waters are depleted of whales, then their whaling days would be over since they have abused their own resources.  Everyone could be happy with this compromise.

Aside from commercial whaling, and I quote from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation website, “In several parts of the world native peoples are dependent on whale products for survival.”  This is very true as a single whale can feed a tribe for months, oils can be used for lamps or cooking oil, and bone meal can be used as a cheap and excellent fertilizer.  A whales resources can even be used to make candles, perfumes, and soap.  There are so many of life's necessities that many tribes around the world would be lacking if the people of the world would sway the International Whaling Commission into banning whaling for indigenous people.  Off the grid tribes need whales.

Furthermore into the topic of cultural whaling for nations is the argument that people shouldn’t have a say into other peoples lives as long as it doesn’t affect their lives.  As long as what a country is doing doesn’t violate universally accepted humanitarian law, such as the Geneva Conventions, then why should a person a thousand miles away from a country’s life care about it?  As long as a country isn’t threatening peoples’ well being or being inhumane, then why should someone care about how other people choose to live their life?  Some might say that the earth is for all of mankind to share, and that we need to preserve mother earth.  Very true, but if you are a member of Judaism or Christianity, then feel free to consider this verse of Genesis 1:26, "...Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."  If you are Jewish or Christian, then this would give you the right to have dominion over whales, or a “fish of the sea”.  Whaling is not a clear cut issue, and when someone thinks that they know so much about a controversial issue that they would go so far as to forcibly change a culture, then to me that shows arrogance.  It’s like how if you would go over to India and slaughter a cow, how you would be considered blasphemous even though killing and eating cows is widely accepted in America. You have the right to your own opinion and can voice that opinion, but please don’t just shut the other guy out completely.  Feel free to argue your point, but not to prosecute on a many sided issue like whaling.  In the words of my science teacher Mrs. Soik, “Everything is relative.”

Whaling to me is an issue that doesn’t need a full and unrestricted open season, but neither one that should have a complete ban on it.  What whaling needs is a compromise that makes everyone happy and this is one of the few issues that can achieve that compromise.  That way everyone can live their own life happily without worrying about the animals under the sea.