We have seen whales put on entertaining performances at SeaWorld or seen them in movies like Free Willy.  However, there is a dark side to whales unknown to most.  The problem is not in how they treat us, but in how we treat them.  Whales are an endangered and protected species that are commercially hunted, killed, and held in captivity only for our benefit.  What is happening to whales is inhumane, imposes harmful conditions, creates behavioral changes, and needs to be stopped by making the captivity of whales illegal while simultaneously enforcing the ban on the commercial killing of whales in order to keep the whale population alive.  

The reason this controversy mainly exists is because whales are extremely fascinating and complex creatures.  They are the largest animals on the planet and consequently have the largest brains of any animal on earth.  Whales' brains are almost four times the size of a human brain.  They even have a part of the brain that humans do not have ("The Fate of Captive Orcas").  This demonstrates that they are intelligent creatures and are well-aware of the conditions that they face.  One could even compare their intelligence to that of humans.  Whales have demonstrated the ability to learn new concepts as well.  For instance, a whale named Noc, who was held in captivity for naval purposes, revealed a new sonic behavior from whales explained to be an attempt at creating a human voice (Siebert 2).  This is not an easy task, and most animals do not have this capability.  Lori Marino, a university educator on psychology who studies whale brain anatomy and evolution said, "For an animal to imitate another species takes a level of self-awareness, a level of understanding of their body and your body and the acoustics of it" (Siebert 6-7).  They can imitate humans and learn a language different from their own, which is something thought to be only able by humans.  Not only do they have sophisticated brains, but they have a level of awareness that reinforces their knowledge of their surroundings.  Clearly, whales are exceptionally intelligent creatures and we do not even know the full extent of their abilities.  

Whales have also proven to be similar to humans in multiple aspects aside from intelligence.  A huge aspect related to humans deals with whale's social behavior.  Whales typically live with tight-knit groups similar to that of families that are called pods (Williams 8).  They do not separate from each other and they rely on one another for survival.  The fact that whales are social creatures furthers the point that they are intelligent ones as well.  They have the ability to socialize with each other, communicate, and live in families. Whales are also similar to humans in other ways and should be treated as such.  They "may be second only to human beings when it comes to behavioral, linguistic, and ecological diversity and complexity" (Rose 1).  The only species above them in all of these aspects are humans and it should be noted that there are extreme similarities between these characteristics.  Whales act in a way similar to people in how they live with their families and socialize amongst themselves.  They have developed their own language.  They are diverse and have different ways of communicating.  Whales are one of the most complicated animals in existence.  Whales align almost directly with human characteristics, thus suggesting they have their own awareness, intelligence, and overall capabilities. 

Nevertheless, whales are constantly commercially hunted and killed by several countries across the globe.   Whaling has been around for thousands of years, starting in Japan around 2000 B.C. (Mihalik).  The purpose for whaling is in order to obtain large amounts of meat as a meat source for certain countries and also for monetary gain from the industry.  Whaling is an extensive and lengthy procedure as it is not easy to kill the largest animal on the planet.  The killing process creates a controversy in society.  Whales are shot at first by using exploding harpoons in order to pull them closer to the boaters where they will be shot at again using rifles until they die.  Some whales are harpooned multiple times, hunted to the point of exhaustion, or even die of suffocation during this process ("The Cruelty of Whaling").  This is why commercial whaling is considered an inhumane process that promotes long periods of suffering for whales.  This process continues today even though it has been shown to be cruel.  This is a painful process and as mentioned above, whales have such high intelligence and awareness that they are aware of their suffering, feel the pain imposed, and know what is happening to them.  As Dr. Lille observed on an Antarctic whaling trip, "If we can imagine a horse having two or three explosive spears stuck into its stomach and being made to pull a butcher's truck through the streets of London while it pours blood in the gutter, we shall have an idea of the present method of killing.  The gunners themselves admit that if whales could scream, the industry would stop, for nobody would be able to stand it" ("The Cruelty of Whaling").   This highlights the extent of the inhumanity as the people performing this atrocity realize the cruelty in what they are doing.  When whaling first came around, people wanted to make it a more humane process.  This was quickly discovered to be an unobtainable task as whales are not easy to kill quickly based on their immense size.  This demonstrates that there is no humane way to kill this animal.  People then believed that there was no need to impose this suffering and if humans were civilized, we would not kill them any longer (Bailey 297).  Evidently, not all people share this belief as commercial whaling continues today.  There is an overall consensus against this inhumanity from the general public along with the people who commercially whale, and yet whaling still goes on in order to maintain a food source and the associated monetary benefits.  

Technically-speaking, commercial whaling should have ended by now and not just based on people's negative viewpoints on it.  It is also based on the principle that it is currently illegal.  The hunting and killing of whales has been illegal since 1986 when the International Whaling Commission created a ban ("Whaling").  This ban was created because of whale's endangered status.  Countries get away with continuing this process under the premise of doing it for scientific research as there is a loophole in the ban that allows for whaling if it is for this purpose.  Japan in particular is focused on researching whales in order to try and uplift this ban (Clancy).  This means that they are only whaling under this premise in order to make it legal to commercially whale for other purposes.  However, there is a lack of need to commercially whale even for science.  With new scientific technology, people can use DNA sampling and monitor whales using remote technology, proving that we can study whales from afar ("The Cruelty of Whaling").  In reality, countries that commercially whale are doing it to have a food source and to keep their whaling industry from collapsing (Clancy).  There are other alternatives to food sources, keeping in mind that the continuation of whaling could potentially lead to the extinction of whales.  There has also been a lack of any purposeful information put forth by the countries that whale, which is odd considering that they have had several decades to study the animals ("The Cruelty of Whaling").  It is evident that these countries are lying about their reasoning for commercial whaling and they are getting away with it as people pretend it is not happening.  There is no real purpose or valid reasoning to have commercial whaling occur under any premise. 

  There are those who refute these claims and believe that commercial whaling is a good process that is beneficial to both society and the whale population.  An argument can be made that commercial whaling should continue because not all species of whales are endangered.  Some whale species are actually abundant and have room for utilization without imposing a threat to their population (Morishita 803).  There is even the chance that whaling maintains the ecosystem within the ocean (Mihalik).  However, whales are still an endangered and protected species.  If we allow whales to be hunted and killed, the populations that are abundant will decrease as only those types of whales will be hunted.  The ecosystem has been able to remain stable without any intervention from humans this far and should be able to continue to do so.  There is no real reason to commercially whale as the whale population can manage to stay afloat on its own and humans are a threat to that.    

People can also make the argument that whale meat is an essential to certain country's diets.  Japan is concerned about their food security and availability now that fish stocks are decreasing quickly (Lliff 524).  It is widely known that people who reside in Japan mainly get their meats from fish and whales.  If the fish market is in decline, all they have left are the whales.  There is also the fact that commercial whaling does not affect the government's income (Lliff 524).  This attempts to show that the only benefit these countries gain from whaling is food for their people and there should be nothing wrong with that.  Nonetheless, there are alternative food sources out there.  There was a survey conducted in 2006 in Japan that found that "82% of the respondents reported never having eaten whale or not haven eaten it in a long time" (Cunningham, Huijbens, and Wearing 148).  Whale is not a necessary meat source for these countries if such a large percentage of people are not eating it.  People can survive without whale meat by finding other alternatives.  Again, it is important to remember the inhumanity in these killings along with the basis that whales are an endangered species.  There is potential to lose the largest and most intelligent creatures forever.  The problem is not with profits or food sources.  The problem is in how the food is obtained from an endangered species in an inhumane way.  There are hardly any real arguments made to keep commercial whaling though none of the arguments for whaling outweigh the negatives to it.  Undoubtedly, commercial whaling needs to end by revising the ban made in 1986.  The International Whaling Commission can remove any possible chance for the continuation of whaling while also adding in consequences for violating the ban, a possible consequence could be a fine.  This should end commercial whaling.

Along with commercial whaling, whales are also mistreated as they are put into captivity.  Whales, specifically orcas, are taken from the wild and put into captivity at organizations like SeaWorld, where they are bred and trained to put on performances.  In captivity, whales face harsher conditions that are different than their nature.  They have artificial seawater, a limited diet with only dead fish, a smaller tank, isolation, and an overall decreased quality of life (Williams 28).  Whales in the wild travel around 100 miles a day and in captivity are confined to a small tank (Williams 28).  These conditions only have negative effects on the whales.  They are not built to live like this.  It has been pointed out that whales are social creatures, but in captivity, they are forced to live in isolation or with artificial families with whales from all over the world (Blackfish).  These artificial families have been shown to create animosity in the animals as they are from different oceans and forced to live together in close proximity.  It has been observed at SeaWorld that these animals attack each other, something never to be observed in the wild (Blackfish).  This can be accredited to the fact that they are forced to live with foreign whales, opposing their nature to live with their biological families.  Whale in captivity have shown to also have a shorter life expectancy than whales in the wild.  Most captive whales at SeaWorld rarely live past their teens or early 20s, whereas in the wild they can live anywhere from 70 to 80 years (Siebert 7).  Not only do the conditions change their quality of life, but captivity also affects their life expectancy.  Captivity also creates an unprecedented violent behavior from whales.  In captivity, there have been over one-hundred documented violent attacks on humans, compared to only one attack by a whale in the wild.  Similarly, captive whales have fatally killed four people, compared to zero deaths by whales in the wild ("The Fate of Captive Orcas").  There is an evident behavioral shift in whales once exposed to the conditions captivity imposes.  It is not only affecting the lives of whales anymore.  Now, not only is captivity harmful to whales, but it has also become dangerous to humans as well. 

The people who are for captivity believe that it is beneficial to whales' well-being.  One argument for the continuation of captivity is that organizations like SeaWorld are saving the whales and taking better care of them.  SeaWorld representatives claim that "the best thing for these animals is to have people care about them" (Fryer).  However, we have learned that whales are extremely social creatures and rely on their families for survival.  They do not need people; they thrive in their own social circles in the wild.  In actuality, they need their families to survive.  There are other benefits to captivity as well.   SeaWorld believes that their reproductive technology would potentially save the whale species if they ever do become extinct thus demonstrating their organization's importance (Raja).  This essentially claims that a benefit of SeaWorld is that they can save the whale population.  Once whales are in captivity, they cannot enter the wild again as they are no longer self-sufficient.  They do not know how to hunt or know basic survival skills needed in the wild.  If whales bred in captivity are put in the wild, they would eventually die.  Even if we bred captive whales, whales in the oceans would still become extinct, therefore breeding whales in captivity would not actually benefit the whale population in any way.  There are no real positive benefits to having captivity.   

There are other claims made that attempt to prove the benefits captivity has to society as opposed to simply the whale population.  The opposition believes that captivity provides a wonderful scientific opportunity.  SeaWorld's website claims, "We create a controlled setting for science that is impossible to replicate in the wild" (Raja).  Important information on whales has been gathered at SeaWorld including their anatomy, reproductive biology, and learning capacity (Jacobs).  Though a valid point, as mentioned previously in this paper, there is new scientific technology that means we do not need to be close to whales or replicate their environments in order to learn about them.  These points simply disprove the need to have SeaWorld hold whales.  There is no benefit to the whale population.  The only reason positive reason to keep whales in captivity is in order for SeaWorld to stay afloat.  The negatives of captivity outweigh the positives, thus showing that captivity needs to be put to a stop by making it illegal to breed or hold whales captive. 

This paper has shown that what is happening to an intellectual and endangered species like whales is wrong and inhumane.  Commercial whaling and captivity only have negative effects on the lives of whales.  There are no good reasons to allow these processes to continue especially when the survival of a species is on the line.  There are simple fixes to these problems.  In order to end captivity, it should be made illegal to breed or hold whales in captivity.  Then once the current whales in captivity die off, captivity for all whales will end.  Ending commercial whaling is a different story as a ban making it illegal already exists.  The International Whaling Commission, who created the ban, should revise it.  They should remove any loopholes or possible chance for loopholes while also adding in consequences for breaking the ban.  It would also be beneficial to get other federal governments involved to put pressure on the countries that whale to end it.  Through all of these solutions, the whales will be saved.  Our world will not lose the largest and possibly most intelligent creature in the world.  The whales will survive and eventually lose their endangered status.  Most importantly, we will stop the inhumanity that our society claims to be so against.

 
