I’m not at all a hunter. I wasn’t born in a family of hunters, but I have a feeling it’s a little like fishing. You know, catching a fish out at sea and being able to eat it right there is something very enjoyable. It’s fresh, it’s natural. So I imagine hunters must also feel that way when they kill a moose, except that’s one big animal. What do I think of whaling?
The Japanese are obviously disguising their hunting as scientific research and it’s not at all true. For that matter, it was stated bluntly in writing that if they had no results, they would lose the right to remain in the International Whaling Commission, to justify their whaling as scientific research, because they had no results. What I really wonder is
what do they get from it? In Japan, there are very few people who eat whales. Even if the government says it’s cultural, that’s not really true. Nor is the hunting of 200 Minke Whales in the Atlantic going to cause a problem for the population. That’s pretty clear too. But on a cultural level, it’s difficult to be doing research on whales and killing them at the same time.
For example, if the Grey Whales that come here to be treated with affection were at the same time in danger of being harpooned. At one point, you can’t perform both activities on the same population. There’ll be conflicts. There would be serious conflicts, I think. Am I against hunting in general? I would say no, but we obviously need to maintain a
balance in this activity.