Part 2 of 2 Read Part 1: INTERVIEW | Hidehiro Kato on Optimism for the Future of Whales In October 2022, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will hold a meeting in Slovenia. This is the second of two articles based on a conversation with Dr Hidehiro Kato, one of Japan’sContinue Reading
Dr Kato naturally hoped that the IWC would act based on the scientific results of the research. But whales had become a totem of the environmental movement.
His research reveals how whales change their diets, and may even change their migrations and shift to new habitats because of changes in water temperature and the availability of fish they feed on.
“We’ve eaten countless numbers of chickens, pigs, and cows. Whales are another living thing, but the blessings a single whale can provide are much greater.”
Japan’s research whaling is quite rigorous, and takes a strictly conservation-based approach. The country’s weak voice internationally makes it hard to defeat unfounded criticism, however.