Why Do People Still Hunt Whales? (Update)

For years, whale oil was used as lighting fuel, industrial lubricant, and the main ingredient in (yum!) margarine. Whale meat was also on a few menus. But today, demand for whale products is at a historic low. And yet some countries still have a whaling industry. We find out why. (Part 2 of “Everything You Never Knew About Whaling (freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/everything-you-ne…).”)

• SOURCES:• Jay Alabaster (featured.japan-forward.com/whalingtoday/author…), doctoral student at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
• Bjorn Basberg (nhh.no/en/employees/faculty/bjorn-lorens-basberg), professor emeritus of economic history at the Norwegian School of Economics.
• Eric Hilt (wellesley.edu/economics/faculty/hilte), professor of economics at Wellesley College.
• Kate O’Connell (awionline.org/content/our-team), senior policy consultant for the marine life program at the Animal Welfare Institute.
• Paul Watson (thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/paul-wat…), environmental activist and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

• RESOURCES:• “The Soviet Union Killed an Appalling Number of Whales. I Wanted to Know Why (slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/history-of…),” by Ryan Tucker Jones (Slate, 2022).
• “Behind the Smile: The Multi-Billion Dollar Dolphin Entertainment Industry (worldanimalprotection.org/sites/default/files/…),” by World Animal Protection (2019).
• “Japan to Resume Commercial Whaling, Defying International Ban (nytimes.com/2018/12/26/world/asia/japan-whalin…),” by Daniel Victor (The New York Times, 2018).
• “Why Is There Not More Outrage About Japan’s Barbaric Practice of Whaling? (telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/30/not-outrage-ja…)” by Boris Johnson (The Telegraph, 2018).
• “Margarine Once Contained a Whole Lot More Whale (atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-margarine-ma…),” by Sarah Laskow (Gastro Obscura, 2017).
• “3 Million Whales Were Killed in the 20th Century: Report (nbcnews.com/science/environment/3-million-whal…),” (N.B.C. News, 2015).
• “The Spectacular Rise and Fall of U.S. Whaling: An Innovation Story (theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/02/the-s…),” by Derek Thompson (The Atlantic, 2012).
• In Pursuit of Leviathan: Technology, Institutions, Productivity, and Profits in American Whaling, 1816-1906 (nber.org/books-and-chapters/pursuit-leviathan-…), by Lance E. Davis, Robert E. Gallman, and Karin Gleiter (1997).
• “Norway Is Planning to Resume Whaling Despite World Ban (nytimes.com/1992/06/30/world/norway-is-plannin…),” by Craig R. Whitney (The New York Times, 1992).

• EXTRAS:• “The First Great American Industry (freakonomics.com/podcast/the-first-great-ameri…),” by Freakonomics Radio (2023).

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