Editing Whaling (section)

== Ongoing debate ==
{{Main|Whale conservation|Anti-whaling}}
Key elements of the debate over whaling include sustainability, ownership, national sovereignty, [[cetacean intelligence]], [[Animal welfare|suffering]] during hunting, health risks, the value of 'lethal sampling' to establish catch quotas, the value of controlling whales' impact on fish stocks and the rapidly approaching extinction of a few whale species.

=== Sustainability ===
{{Main|Cetacean bycatch}}
[[File:Domino whale-bone hg.jpg|thumb|[[Dominoes]] made from whale bones]]
[[File:Baleines.png|thumb|Whales caught, by year, including corrected USSR totals; source has data by species; totals are shown on a logarithmic scale]]

The [[World Wide Fund for Nature]] says that 90% of all [[northern right whale]]s killed by human activities are from ship collisions, calling for restrictions on the movement of shipping in certain areas.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} Noise pollution threatens the existence of cetaceans. Large ships and boats make a tremendous amount of noise that falls into the same frequency range of many whales.<ref>{{cite web|title=Threats To Whales|url=http://www.savethewhales.org|publisher=SAVE the WHALES|access-date=2013-11-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100114053626/http://www.savethewhales.org/|archive-date=2010-01-14|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Bycatch]] also kills more animals than hunting.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/threats/shipping/|title=WWF&nbsp;– Impact of shipping on whales|date=2010-02-22|publisher=Panda.org|access-date=2010-07-10}}</ref> Some scientists believe pollution to be a factor.<ref name=BBCsci>Kirby, Alex. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/806343.stm Right whales face extinction.] ''[[BBC News]]''. June 27, 2000.</ref> Moreover, since the IWC moratorium, there have been several instances of illegal whale hunting by IWC nations. In 1994, the IWC reported evidence from [[genetic testing]]<ref>Baker, Scott. Report to the International Whaling Commission (1994)</ref> of whale meat and blubber for sale on the open market in Japan in 1993.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Baker|first=C. S.|year=1994|title=Which Whales are Hunted? A Molecular Genetic Approach to Monitoring Whaling|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=265|issue=5178|pages=1538–1539|doi=10.1126/science.265.5178.1538|pmid=17801528|author2=Palumbi, S. R.|author-link2=Stephen R. Palumbi|bibcode=1994Sci...265.1538B}}</ref> In addition to the legally permitted minke whale, the analyses showed that 10–25% of tissues sampled came from non-minke [[baleen whale]]s. Further research in 1995 and 1996 showed a significant drop of non-minke baleen whales sampled to 2.5%.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Palumbi|first1=S. R.|author-link1=Stephen R. Palumbi|year=1998|title=Species identification using genetic tools: The value of nuclear and mitochondrial gene sequences in whale conservation|url=http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/courses_html/OCN331/Palumbi&Cipriano.pdf|journal=[[Journal of Heredity]]|volume=89|issue=5|pages=459–464|doi=10.1093/jhered/89.5.459|pmid=9768497|author2=Cipriano, F.|access-date=2006-12-03|doi-access=free|archive-date=2020-09-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918103714/http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/courses_html/OCN331/Palumbi%26Cipriano.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> In a separate paper, Baker stated that "many of these animals certainly represent a bycatch (incidental entrapment in fishing gear)" and stated that DNA monitoring of whale meat is required to adequately track whale products.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://whale.wheelock.edu/archives/ask03/att-0087/01-whalingemm.pdf | title = Modern Whaling | author1 = Clapham, P. J. | author2 = Baker, C. S. | name-list-style = amp | year = 2002 | access-date = 2006-12-03 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061108041514/http://whale.wheelock.edu/archives/ask03/att-0087/01-whalingemm.pdf | archive-date = 2006-11-08 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

It was revealed in 1994 that the [[Soviet Union]] had been systematically undercounting its catch. For example, from 1948 to 1973, the Soviet Union caught 48,477 humpback whales rather than the 2,710 it officially reported to the IWC.<ref>{{
cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/13/science/dna-tests-find-meat-of-endangered-whales-for-sale-in-japan.html | access-date=2014-08-25 | last = Angier | first = Natalie | title = DNA Tests Find Meat of Endangered Whales for Sale in Japan | work = [[The New York Times]] | date = 1994-09-13}}</ref> On the basis of this new information, the IWC stated that it would have to rewrite its catch figures for the last 40 years.<ref>{{cite news | first = David | last = Hearst | title = Soviet Files Hid Systematic Slaughter of World Whale Herds | newspaper = Gazette (Montreal) | date = 1994-02-12}}</ref> According to Ray Gambell, then-Secretary of the IWC, the organization had raised its suspicions with the former Soviet Union, but it did not take further action because it could not interfere with national sovereignty.<ref>{{cite news|title=We Didn't Know About the Whale Slaughter|last=Williams|first=David|date=1994-02-23|publisher=Agence Fr. Presse}}</ref>

=== Health risks ===
{{See also|Whale meat#Toxicity}}
Whales are long-lived predators, so their tissues build up concentrations of [[methylmercury]] from their prey. Mercury concentrations reach levels that are hazardous to humans who consume too much too often, since mercury also bioaccumulates in humans. High levels have been found in the Caribbean<ref name="mcc">{{Cite journal |last1=McCormack |first1=Meaghan A. |last2=Fielding |first2=Russell |last3=Kiszka |first3=Jeremy J. |last4=Paz |first4=Valeria |last5=Jackson |first5=Brian P. |last6=Bergfelt |first6=Don R. |last7=Dutton |first7=Jessica |date=February 2020 |title=Mercury and selenium concentrations, and selenium:mercury molar ratios in small cetaceans taken off St. Vincent, West Indies |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0013935119307054 |journal=Environmental Research |language=en |volume=181 |pages=108908 |doi=10.1016/j.envres.2019.108908|pmid=31759648 |bibcode=2020ER....18108908M |s2cid=208274373 }}</ref> (where people are advised not to exceed one serving every three weeks),<ref name="fielding" /> in the Faroe Islands,<ref name="weihe">{{Cite journal |last1=Weihe |first1=Pál |last2=Debes Joensen |first2=Høgni |date=2012-01-31 |title=Dietary recommendations regarding pilot whale meat and blubber in the Faroe Islands |journal=International Journal of Circumpolar Health |language=en |volume=71 |issue=1 |pages=18594 |doi=10.3402/ijch.v71i0.18594 |pmid=22789518 |issn=2242-3982|pmc=3417701 }}</ref> and in Japan.<ref name="simm">{{Cite journal |last=Simmonds |first=M. P. ,K. Haraguchi,T. Endo,F. Cipriano,S. R. Palumbi & G. M. Troisi |date=2002-11-23 |title=Human health significance of organochlorine and mercury contaminants in Japanese whale meat |journal=Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Part A |volume=65 |issue=17 |pages=1211–1235 |doi=10.1080/152873902760125714 |pmid=12167206 |bibcode=2002JTEHA..65.1211S |s2cid=24439081 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11220110}}</ref>

=== Effects on global carbon cycles ===
Scientists have analyzed the ability of the oceans to [[Carbon sequestration|sequester atmospheric carbon]] before industrial whaling and in modern times, hundreds of years after the most active whaling periods. Focusing on the amount of carbon stored in baleen whales, scientists determined that large marine mammals hold over 9 million less tons of carbon in the ocean than during the pre whaling era (9.1 x 10^6 tons).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pershing |first1=Andrew J. |last2=Christensen |first2=Line B. |last3=Record |first3=Nicholas R. |last4=Sherwood |first4=Graham D. |last5=Stetson |first5=Peter B. |date=2010-08-26 |title=The Impact of Whaling on the Ocean Carbon Cycle: Why Bigger Was Better |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=5 |issue=8 |pages=e12444 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0012444 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=2928761 |pmid=20865156|bibcode=2010PLoSO...512444P }}</ref>

Whales play an important role in the [[carbon cycle]] in life and death. Living whales cycle carbon and nitrogen throughout the [[water column]] via [[whale feces]] where it can contribute to [[Primary production|primary productivity]] at the surface. In death, their carcasses can become part of a [[whale fall]] and sink to the bottom, bringing their carbon with them to help form a temporary ecosystem at the ocean floor. Despite rebounding whale numbers after the international ban on whaling, climate change and rising carbon levels continue to hinder the amount of carbon sequestered by whales.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Durfort |first1=Anaëlle |last2=Mariani |first2=Gaël |last3=Tulloch |first3=Vivitskaia |last4=Savoca |first4=Matthew S. |last5=Troussellier |first5=Marc |last6=Mouillot |first6=David |date=2022-11-09 |title=Recovery of carbon benefits by overharvested baleen whale populations is threatened by climate change |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |language=en |volume=289 |issue=1986 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2022.0375 |issn=0962-8452 |pmc=9627705 |pmid=36321488}}</ref>