Jim Webb   Oct. 16, 1987

Over the years, the number of whales has dropped sharply. From 1946 to 1986, about 340,000 whales were killed. People worry that children in the future can only see whales in pictures. They believe all kinds of whaling (whale hunting) should be stopped before it’s too late.

Some people are trying to stop whaling all over the world. But they fail to notice one fact: Whaling was going on for a long time before the number of whales went down and became a problem.

Whaling started as early as 1,500 years ago. This was how tribespeople fed their families. They hunted whales for meat because almost nothing could grow on their land. They also made whale fat into oil and used it to make candles or oil lamps. Over the years, whaling became their way of living, and even part of who they are.

Tribe whaling is not the thing we should worry about. Of all the whales that were killed over the past forty years, only 10% were hunted by tribespeople. The other 90% died at the hands of the money-making whaling business. When we try to stop all kinds of whaling, we should think what we are asking tribespeople to give up and whether this is the best answer to the problem of whaling.