Creating and publishing our own magazine is one of the hardest but most rewarding experiences of my professional life. While I would not recommend it – it requires a colossal amount of work, rewarded with a lot of stress and a deep hole burnt through the company coffers – it provides a unique opportunity to curate unique perspectives on a wide range of issues. 

Over the course of its 3-year run from 2000 to 2003, Eat Magazine touched on so many issues particular to food and society as well as global evolutions in food culture and how this impacts ways of thinking and societal norms today.

In recognition of Japan’s Sea Day on July 15^th and the International Whaling Commission’s World Whale and Dolphin Day on July 23^rd, I wanted to step into the archives and see how some issues have changed over the last quarter of a century. One particular issue in Japan – commercial whaling – is as sensitive and divisive today as it ever was…

Free Willy or blubber and chips? Which side of the whaling debate are you on?

In our 2^nd issue of Eat published in October 2000, we spoke with representatives from the Japan Whaling Association (JWA) and Japan’s Dolphin and Whale Action Network (IKAN) to hear both sides of the argument on the whaling industry and consumption of whale meat.

The JWA disputed claims about illegal whaling activities by Japanese ships in the Southern Ocean, whale hunting in the name of scientific research as well as how whale meat was perceived in Japan at this time. IKAN highlighted the 20,000 dolphins being caught in Japanese waters as well as the high level of toxins such as mercury found in whale meat and the selling of meat from protected species such as sperm whales. Nearly 25 years on, how has the issue evolved in Japan both in terms of regulation and perceptions in society?

Whale meat certainly doesn’t seem to be a food of choice for many Japanese today. Nearly 250,000 tonnes of whale meat was eaten at its peak in 1962. But in 2021 barely 1,000 tonnes were consumed as other protein sources such as chicken and beef have taken over and younger generations show no interest in whale meat. Despite this huge decline, the whaling industry receives more than 5bn Japanese yen (around US$32mn) per year in subsidies from the Japanese government.

Developments in the last few years suggest the whaling industry and operators won’t be disappearing any time soon and may actually expand. In 2019, Japan formally left the International Whaling Commission, the organisation that placed a moratorium on all commercial whaling in 1982. This allowed Japan to restart its commercial whaling practices and in 2023 caught nearly 300 whales according to the country’s Fisheries Agency. In May 2024, the Japanese government announced it will be adding fin whales, designated as a vulnerable species according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, to its commercial whaling list. Additionally, a nearly US$50mn investment by Japanese whaling company Kyodo Senpaku  in a new ‘mother ship’ for transporting whale carcasses is a signal of either the firm’s prospects for the future or continued dependence on government support.

With Norway returning to commercial whaling in 1996, Iceland rejecting the IWC moratorium in 2006, and the Faroe Islands conducting its annual grind, the industry continues to proliferate at a time when questions over the stability of whale populations globally remain. For example, a study of humpback whale numbers between 2012 and 2021 suggests several thousand of the iconic whale species died from starvation in the period due to super-heated waters in the North Pacific Ocean decreasing food stocks and availability.  

It seems that with nationalistic sentiment increasing around the world, whaling, in Japan and elsewhere is an issue that won’t be disappearing any time soon. But as the effects of climate change, overfishing and habitat destruction further damage the health of our ocean ecosystems and marine species, these decisions by individual nations are appearing more and more short sighted. More than ever there needs to be a global commitment to managing the health of our oceans, otherwise there won’t be any whaling industry to protect.

Learn more about the SDG 14 goal to restore our seas and oceans

UN SDG 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources