Perhaps that majority of Australians then is unaware that the idea behind whaling is not to drive whales to extinction, but to harvest a certain number of them at such a rate that the long term conservation of the whale population being targeted is assured, while at the same time providing a source of animal protein for human consumption. Much in the same way as Australian fishermen target fish, and then export these product to overseas markets.

If more Australians were aware of the wonderful recovery of the humpback whales around Australia (a rate which even Australian scientists have estimated to be an annual 10%), more Australians would probably also feel comfortable with the general notion that killing some small number of whales (much less than the annual 10% increase that they appear to be capable of - say just 1%) would be unlikely to drive them to extinction.

Recently Australian argumentation at the political level has increasingly been referring to “our whales”, so I had the impression that the debate had moved past the one about extinction risk, and on to one of who has the right to benefit from their exploitation. It’s understandable that, if a whale population were only at say 80% of it’s natural limit (due to sustained hunting), whale watching operators may be at a disadvantage compared to if the population was at 100% of it’s natural limit.

I thought Australia might like to look at this argument in their negotiations with the Japanese over the southern hemisphere humpback populations that they are planning to hunt from next summer. After all, in Japan there are both whale watching and whale hunting operations. While Australia may today wish to pursue only one of these activities, it seems unfair to try to impose those values on people on the other side of the world.

I am wondering why it is that the federal government has failed to attempt to compromise with the Japanese over their whaling activity.

At least, the whales in Japan’s coastal waters are of no interest to Australians. Why does the Australian government not seek to compromise with the Japanese, for example by offering to support Japanese moves for hunting in the North Pacific if the Japanese give an assurance that they will give up their hopes of exploiting southern hemisphere humpbacks?

If it seems like a good idea, someone may like to contact Malcolm Turnbull about it.