Man, Whales and Money.
In the beginning of humanity men were hunters and gatherers. They lived from what nature offered and adapted their lifestyle to the conditions around them. They took what they needed to sustain the clan, hunting and collecting fruit and grain in summer to survive the long hard winter if ever they did not move with the seasons to avoid the hardship of ice and snow.
They started using clumsy tools of their own making, inventing new ones and improving them, learning from life.
These times have long passed. We live in abundance, everything is obtainable, there are all kinds of products on the shelves of the super markets and yet, the hunter still lives in the memory of the cells of man.
Some kill for sport, some say nature needs help to regulate itself, some don’t even think about what they are doing.
And some do it for profit. They disguise it with a scientific name so it becomes acceptable to the public opinion.
These are only mice, rats, rabbits, monkeys or… whales?
This year the Japanese Government has announced that nine hundred whales are going to be killed for their Scientific Research Program. Norway and Iceland are opening their whaling season in the beginning of May, as soon as the waters are free from ice. These two countries do not really consume whale flesh as a base of their nutrition like Japanese people do where whaling has a long tradition there. They slaughter whales for money and because they pretend whales eat too much fish so there is not enough left to feed the people.
Millions of dollars are made every year with the slaughter of whales. What the men responsible for this kind of industry seem to forget is that whales can’t be raised like cattle. They have their migration routes, their mating and birthing places and the moment the whales are extinguished at one place, the chance that others fill the gap is very thin.
There are many whale species just at the limit of survival because the population is so low that the natural laws of procreation are not guaranteed. And they are still hunted and slaughtered in the most horrible way.
It is as if mankind was blinded by the glitter of gold not to see the beauty and majesty of these noble beings and the important role they play in the balance of the life on this planet.
