Whales

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I have for many years been against whaling. This debate has been going on for a long time and it seems to me that it draws out many interesting aspects of how public opinion is formed, internationally and nationally. Icelanders generally are very pro-whaling and claim to base their opinion on firm science, accusing foreign environmentalists of being sentimental in their attitudes, and hypocritical seeing how the consumption of meat and industrial agriculture are very strong in the West where most of the opposition to whaling comes from. The 'science' in question is that
a) the whales are not endangered
b) the whales are 'eating all the fish'
When probed on their sources most people sort of cave in, but do not change their minds. Of course, the main reason for our (general) pro-whaling stance, just as the main reason for anti-whaling (in all fairness) is sentimental. The sentiment in question is nationalism, an idea that 'we shall not be bullied into not killing whales'. When I suggest that the general picture painted in the Icelandic media might not be entirely fair I'm considered to be borderline insane (by my colleagues and students). Recently Paul Manger was flown in to Iceland to convince us that whales are basically dumb, the Icelandic assumption would be that hence killing them is ok. This sentimental attachment to killing large animals is very understandable, but in a way it is also ironic because whaling is not an old Icelandic tradition. Foreign whalers were stationed in Iceland in the past, but whaling only became an Icelandic industry in the twentieth century.

My opposition to whaling is, just as most of my fellow Icelanders' support for it, based on a feeling. Fistly, I guess, it is because I am very wary of any practice that stirs this kind of nationalistic fervor anywhere. Secondly I see the ban on whaling as a symbolic triumph for environmentalism. Even if the science is not conclusive, and we could kill X whales without risking their extinction, I believe that respecting this ban is a step in the direction of increased environmental awareness, and this is badly needed in Iceland as it is everywhere. Thirdly, and this is my least sentimental reason, I am confident that abiding by the ban on whaling makes much more economic sense than carrying on with hunting them. Tourism is an important industry for us, and Iceland is very attractive to tourists who would typically want to go whale watching and abhor the killing of whales. Iceland should, in my opinion, try to move in the direction of the sustainable and the green, not in the direction of blood drenched whaling stations and large scale polluting industries.... but then again, I'm just a sentimental old softy. Mind you, sentimental softies are preferable to the hard kind of sentimentalist... (again, in my humble opinion)

(yeah, and by the way, this 'eating all the fish' argument is completely bogus, the question of the risk of extinction is much more open)