Whaling Community Struggles Through Bans and Conservation
For hundreds of years, whaling was a way of life for many of those living in the small coastal community of Taiji.
Tameo Ryono was proud to be catching whales when he first embarked from the Japanese village of Taiji more than 50 years ago.
"Whalers were stars here in Taiji. I got what I had dreamed of since I was a little boy," said Ryono.
"I’m proud of being able to do whaling throughout my life."
But, at the age of 71, Ryono believes he will be the last member of his family to know whaling as a way of life, due to harsh criticism from conservationists and foreign countries.
Ryono joined the crew of a 490-tonne whaling ship on an Antarctic voyage at age 18, learning his skills from veterans for a decade before he was considered a full-fledged whaler.
His son, however, has not followed suit.
"Everybody of my generation wanted to become whalers," said 42-year-old Fumitoshi Ryono, who instead opted to become a local civil servant in Taiji, 260 miles southwest of Tokyo.
"I was hoping to become a whaler when I was a student, but whaling companies were going through restructuring and weren’t recruiting whalers those days."
Whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1986, and officials in countries like Australia still say that whales need protection, but those like Japan disagree, adding that some species are in high enough numbers to allow regulated fishing.
After meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that the two countries would work to find a solution to the controversy.
Japan’s so-called scientific research in Antarctica is often criticized as being a cover for commercial whaling.
When Tokyo joined the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling in 1987, more than 50 Taiji whalers lost their jobs. Currently only 40 percent of Taiji’s 3,500 population are professional whalers.
Fumitoshi Ryono has no plan to urge his son to take up the harpoon. "I don’t think I should tell my son to become a whaler. That’s something he should decide," he said.
When Japan began Antarctic whaling in the 1930s, many Taiji men joined the expeditions. These days, whalers in Taiji survive thanks to an annual local government quota that allows them to catch about 2,000 pilot whales and dolphins in coastal waters.
The catching of pilot whales and dolphins is not restricted by the IWC, however many impassioned conservationists protest the actions as if they were.
Japan has threatened to leave the IWC after anti-whaling countries blocked its proposal to let four villages, including Taiji, kill minke whales similar to "community whaling" allowed for Alaska natives, who eat whale meat as a staple and use it for cultural practices.
"Despite various tragedies and hardship, our ancestors did not cut their ties to whales," said Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen.
"It is Taiji’s mission to pass on our whaling techniques and food culture to future generations."
But conservationists are not convinced, and Sangen is struggling to keep whaling pride alive.
"The people of Taiji argue that whaling is their culture and tradition. But there is a gap between whaling in the Antarctic Ocean and coastal whaling," said Greenpeace Japan’s executive director, Jun Hoshikawa.
"I wonder how they see this gap. Is whaling in the Antarctic really Taiji’s tradition?"
The town of Taiji now uses a program to teach its young citizens about the community’s historic ties to whaling.
"Unless we revive whale meat school lunches, we will lose our food culture," said Sangen.