Whaling is an emotionally charged, politicized issue. It is also highly nuanced. Unfortunately, its details are often lost amid the sound bites and oversimplifications of polarized rhetoric.
Both sides of the spectrum are on display as the 54th annual plenary session of the International Whaling Commission continues this week in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
Environmentalists maintain that whaling has never been conducted sustainably, that human avarice has never failed to lead to the underreporting of catches and to overexploitation.