Making a meal of it: A political ecology examination of whale meat and tourism

Hunting practices often provoke moral controversy (Fischer et al., 2013). Whale hunting-‘whaling’-is no exception. Whaling drove many whale species to the brink of extinction, but on the back of sustained environmental campaigns, a moratorium on whaling was enacted. Today, the practice continues only among a small group of often geographically disparate peoples. While the environmental threat presented to whales by hunting has largely receded, the practice retains symbolic, economic, and emotional salience within environmental movements and for remaining ‘whaling cultures’ (Kalland, 2009). Eating whale meat has become taboo in many parts of the world, while in others it remains a valued right (Einarsson, 1993; Kalland, 2009). While whaling may have dwindled, it remains in popular memory in many countries as emblematic of the unsustainable resource depletion and cruel destruction of the capitalist era: Lust for whale oil led to the deaths of millions of whales and ultimately rendered the whale oil industry’s practices unviable. However, the great majority of whaling carried out today is for meat and involves diverse whaling groups, many of whom, to greater or lesser extents, argue that their practices form an important and authentic part of their cultures, lifestyles, and economies. The ensuing conflicts are integrally moral in character, with the appropriateness of whale meat for consumption a source of great contention (Blok, 2008; Lien, 2004).