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Chasse à la Baleine. Victor Et Laura. We often tend to believe that it's been years since we’ve stopped hunting whales and yet the hunting still goes on. History of whaling - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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History of whalingThe Basques were the first whale hunters and they used harpoons. They established
a station in Labrador in 1536. However, whaling probably began much earlier in
many coastal communities throughout the world, including the Basques, but also the
Vikings, some Indian tribes of North America (Makah, Nootka, Nuu-chah-nulth)
and the Japanese.
Today only Japan and
Norway still hunt whales.
Iceland, however, plans to hunt them again. Other
maritime nations are
trying to limit the impact of
hunting by establishing
sanctuaries in their territorial
waters.
On June 19, 2006, Tokyo got a vote infavor of
whaling (Src: Reuters) and this revived large intensive fishing against the largest
mammal of our planet.Japan and its allies won for the first time in more than
20 years, a favorable vote in the whale fishery at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
The blue whale and whales are still in a critical situation. Others gently back their numbers but it is unclear how
much pollution and changes linked to global warming, degassing or wild fishing nets have an impact on their future. Certain priorities must be imposed not to resume the hunt.
We're starting to see some of these species repopulate. But
we mustn’t forget all those whales which
endured intensive hunting, prized for their meat and fat.It should be noted that
the creation of the harpoon gun led to carnage on the world's
seas. More than two million whales were kille
d in less than 100 years!
So today, there are probably not more than 1000 or 2000 of these blue whales that once roamed the oceans. After blue
whales, fin whales were attacked. Formerly, in the South Seas, there would
have been half a million and now they are only a few thousand. You should
also know that Russia has often cheated on its fishing quotas in the 90s. We
mustn’t forget that Japan and Norway sometimes hunt endangered whales,
and say that it’s natural and logical after all . They also say that some are hunted
for scientific purposes.