Whaling was once a major industry worldwide. And by the 1940s, more than 30,000 whales were being caught every yean Oil from whales was widely used. In order to make possible the orderly development of the global whaling industry, the international Whaling Commission (IWC) was formed in 1946.
However, in 1986, the IWC voted (投票) for a ban on whaling. The biggest concern was the huge fall in whale populations across the planet. Indeed many people say the ban came too late and that commercial whaling has already driven many species close to extinction. According to Greenpeace, blue whales are less than 1% of their original number in the Antarctic while Sei Whales and Fin Whales are also listed as "endangered species".
There are many other good reasons to oppose whaling. Whales are extremely intelligent creatures. They have social networks very similar to those of humans, and scientists have recently discovered that whales have brain cells only previously found in humans and great apes (猿) . On top of that, whaling is also a cruel industry. Whales are often caught using explosive harpoons (鱼叉). In some cases, when the harpoon doesn't bit its target properly, whales can take minutes or sometimes hours to die.
Despite this, some countries continue to hunt whales. And currently Japan hunts more than 1,000 whales a year-all of them part of a supposed "scientific research" programme. Many people argue that this "research" is nothing more than a front of commercial whaling — the meat that is left over after samples are taken is sold.
At present, the world is fairly divided on the issue with Iceland, Japan and Norway on the pro-whaling side and the US, Australia, New Zealand and the EU on the anti-whaling side. Asked recently bow difficult his job was on a scale (等级) of one to ten, Cristian Maquieira, the chairman of the IWC said, "About a twelve!"
