Final word: Time to debunk a whale of a myth

Media release: Scientific whaling, the real truths

There has been much speculation in the media, as of late, regarding the practice of "scientific whaling". Unfortunately, most of what has been reported has been based on emotion and a misplaced sense of adoration for the whale rather than on scientific principles.

The Coalition for Cetacean Research (CCR) is a group of scientists based in Tokyo, Japan, with absolutely no links to the Japanese whaling industry, but which feels many of the inaccuracies of the news reports about whaling need to be corrected so the truth may be known.

Why do we need scientific whaling? What more is there to learn about whales that we don't already know? These are the sort of emotionally loaded questions that have been bandied about by the fanatical opponents of whaling in an attempt to obscure the truth about some of the most valuable research currently being undertaken on this planet. The CCR is co-ordinating much of this research, for the good for humanity.

One example of research the CCR is doing of major scientific importance to the whole planet, is the study of the causative links between whales and global warming. It is now widely believed by a great number of scientists, many of whom have no affiliation or financial arrangements of any kind to the CCR, that whale poop and farts may do more damage to the environment than the entire Japanese car industry. By catching whales and cutting them open we can measure the amount of poop and gas each whale contains. Once this data is extrapolated over the entire whale population, we will be able to see just how truly dangerous whales are to the future of all life on this planet.

The environmental effect of whale over-population is another CCR research area of the utmost importance to the survival of the human species. It has been confirmed, through the dissection of whale stomachs, that many whales eat krill in massive amounts. Krill is the most important thing in the sea because it is at the very bottom of the food chain. It follows logically that if there are too many whales in the sea and all the krill are eaten, then all life in the sea will die and that all life on land will inevitably perish soon after.

According to CCR, whale over-population is also taking its toll on the whales themselves. Analysis of freshly-slaughtered whales shows the animals were suffering from very high stress levels. This can be put down to too many whales living too close together in an over-crowded aquatic environment - so crowded that pods of whales often try to spontaneously migrate on to land to escape the squalor. Thus anything mankind can do to alleviate the terrible conditions under the ocean will be a blessing for the whales themselves.

The presence of so many whales in the sea is also having an adverse effect on the fish population. It is now widely believed among CCR scientists that the decline in fish numbers is not because of over-fishing but due to whales interfering in fish breeding cycles. Whales, being very large creatures, are terrifying the fish by looming over them when they are trying to mate, thus rendering them fearful and incapable of continuing the act of breeding and, ultimately, of propagating their species.

These are the sort of incontrovertible facts that the opponents of scientific whaling choose to ignore as they drown out the voices of reason with their clamouring for an end to the humane and selective harvesting of research subjects from the ocean. They claim that scientific whaling is commercial whaling in disguise and point to the selling of whale meat and other by-products to back up their fanciful assertions.

But what are the laboratory ships meant to do with their experiments once their life-saving research is done? Toss the remains back into the sea, thus causing an environmental catastrophe? No. If a humble Japanese worker can enjoy a morsel of minke sashimi in his lunchbox because of science and commerce working hand-in-hand, surely this is mankind at his finest.

We, at the CCR, are not heartless scientists forsaking in the name of knowledge all that makes us human. We understand how uneducated people can look at a whale and marvel at them. They are, in many respects, magnificent creatures. But they are magnificent in the same way that a rabbit is cute until there are millions of them, over-running the pasture and eating all the grass.

All that we at the CCR ask, in the name of fairness, is that you see the whale for what it truly is: the rodent of the sea and potentially the cause of the end of the world as we know it. For only then can the issue of scientific whaling be intelligently debated.