Illustrating "abduction": GIANT SQUID vs. SPERM WHALE

I embedded this video of a battle between a giant squid and a sperm whale here to illustrate a point. We've been talking about critical thinking in our last few classes. The concept that I tried to explain to everyone last week was "abduction." This describes what happens when we observe something (like what's happening in the video that I embedded here), and then make a logical inference based on that observation. Watch the video and then continue reading.



When you watched the video, you might have made some logical inferences such as…

1) Sperm whales fight against giant squids that are almost the same size.

2) Since the whale won, it's indicates that the whales usually comes out ahead in these battles.

3)Whales can be injured badly by giant squids.

From my research, it seems that sperm whales usually don't pick on giant squids that are fully grown; they try to eat juveniles that are much smaller than them. So, the first inference wouldn't hold up. However, the other two inferences would probably hold up to further evidence. So, this shows that abduction sometimes leads us to logical inferences that are true, but it can't always be trusted.

Whaling from various perspectives -- An Eskimo's point of view

The following are profiles of people who have unique perspectives on the whaling issue. Some of the people are fictional and others, such as Dora Arey, are real people whose account has been creatively constructed. In the case of Dora Arey, I have written in her voice, and therefore her perspective, as the wife of a captain of a whaling boat.  I used factual information from this article:

Neher, Jake. "North slope residents joyous as whales are landed." Arctic Sounder. 3 May 2011:  Web. 5 May 2011. <http://www.thearcticsounder.com/article/1118north_slope_residents_joyous_as_whales_are>.

Yuyan, K. (2020, March 26). People of the Whale – a portrait of traditional hunting in Alaska. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/feb/04/people-of-the-whale-a-portrait-of-traditional-hunting-in-alaska

My name is Dora Arey. My husband and I are eskimos living in Barrow, Alaska. The day before yesterday I had some very good news. I found out that my husband, who is the captain of one of our local Eskimo whaling teams, caught the first whale of the season for us. That's important because we live in a cold, harsh environment and whale meat is an important part of our diet. We'd have trouble surviving without it.

You may imagine that whaling boats are huge ships, and the "whalers" shoot gigantic harpoons at the whales using canons. That's very different from the way we catch whales. The techniques we use are the same ones that our ancestors used thousands of years ago. Small crews set out in tiny seal-skin boats when they see whales come close to shore. The whales are harpooned by hand by strong men at close range. It's dangerous work, especially when the whales get angry. We are only given a certain number of "strikes" by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. If a whale gets away or we miss hitting it, that's counted as a strike.

When I heard that my husband's crew caught a whale, I said, "Thank you, Lord! We receive it. We receive the blessing." We hold a big celebration to commemorate the first whale of the season. The whale will feed our whole community for a long time. We use every part of it. We consider whales to be our brothers. We can't live without each other.

If you take a look at the whale hunt on the following YouTube video, you'll get an idea of how our whale hunt looks.

Echospaces (2009, February 25). Iñupiaq Whale Hunt. Retrieved May 31, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAqEK7K5oCQ

Japanese government's position on whaling

In the following posting, I’ve used my imagination to show the views of an imagined senior bureaucrat in Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Some of the information backing up the point of view was taken from an English website hosted by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

"The Position of the Japanese Government on Research Whaling." Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. N.p.. Web. 6 Jun 2013. <http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/q_a/faq6.html>.

Japan has a long tradition of whaling that goes back to the 12th century. Starting in the last century, we started to do commercial whaling. Many Western countries, such as the US, Britain, and Portugal--who now protest our whaling--were involved in commercial whaling long before we were. Japan didn’t get started in modern, commercial whaling (with exploding harpoons and power-driven ships) until we learned the craft from Norway during the Meiji Period.

Whales may be seen as cute and intelligent animals by Australians, British people, and Americans, but to Japanese they are a source of protein and we see them as part of our traditional sea-based diet. Much beef is eaten in the US and Australia. Would it be right for us Japanese to protest that cute cows are sacrificed needlessly for selfish purposes. Of course not, we respect that Americans and Australians eat whatever they want to eat and make their own decisions about what they consider to be suitable for food. Why aren’t our food preferences respected?

Some say that we should not kill whales because they’re becoming more and more rare. In fact, as you may know, there has been a moratorium on whaling since1986 by the International Whaling Commission. This means that whales cannot be hunted for commercial purposes. Japan strongly supports the international protection of endangered whale species such as blue whales.

However, our government has also supported, since 1988, the harvesting (that means killing) of whales for research purposes so that we can find out, scientifically, if a sufficient number of whales exist for commercial whaling to be reestablished. Each year, we send whaling ships to Antartica and to the North Pacific to kill a sample of hundreds of whales. They include Minke whales, Bryde's whales, Sei whales, and sperm whales.

It is true that whale meat from these research whaling expeditions ends up in our markets and restaurants, but the sale of the meat does not create a profit; the funds that are generated are used only to fund a portion of the research program.

Some of the money that was supposed to go to recovery efforts after the 3/11 tsunami and earthquake also went toward funding the research whaling in the Antarctic. More money is necessary to cover security because of the increasingly aggressive actions of Sea Shepherd. Although they call US eco terrorists, it is THEIR organization and members who are the true eco-terrorists.

Thank you for reading our side of the story.

Taro Kujiramoto (Assistant to the secretary of the vice minister of Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries)

Introducing Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd

This is written from the perspective of someone on the extreme anti-whaling perspective. It was written as if Paul Watson himself was introducing himself, but it was actually created based on facts about him listed on the Sea Shepherd website:
"Captain Paul Watson's Biography." Sea Shepherd's Home Page. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Web. 31 May 2013. <http://www.seashepherd.org/who-we-are/captain-watsons-biography.html>.

My name is Paul Watson and I’d like to introduce myself to you. You may only know me as the crusader against Japanese whaling but, actually, the campaigns I’ve been involved in have been quite diverse, from protesting against nuclear bomb tests to trying to protect harp seals against cruel hunters in my home country of Canada.

My worldview is biocentric, meaning that I think all creatures on this earth have equal value and should not be dominated by man. The more usual anthropocentric worldview is that man is at the pinnacle of creation and can do whatever he wants to “lower life forms.” A biocentric view helps us to see the profound interrelationships we have with all other life forms on this planet. Because of this belief, I have spent a good part of my life defending all sorts of animals who were being slaughtered needlessly. This started early in my life, when I was just nine years old. As a member of the Kindness Club, which was founded by Aida Flemming in New Brunswick, I helped to destroy leg-hold traps that were used to trap and kill beavers. I also tried to interfere with duck and deer hunters.

I eventually went on to become one of the co-founders of the Greenpeace Foundation. My first work with them involved organizing a voyage on the U.S. and Canadian border to protest against the nuclear testing at Amchitka Island by the Atomic Energy Commission. That action resulted in the delay of the test.

In 1974, I collaborated with other Greenpeace activists in the first campaign by Greenpeace to oppose whaling. In the following year, I served as First officer on a voyage to confront the Soviet Whaling fleet. [So, I clearly am not taking action against Japanese whalers these days due to prejudice against Japanese and I am not picking on them to the exclusion of others. My first actions to defend animals were in MY OWN country, in fact.]



In 1977,  I returned to my own country to oppose the seal hunt off the coast of Labrador. I brought the movie star Brigitte Bardot to the hunting grounds, where harp seal pups were mercilessly slaughtered, to bring international attention on the seal slaughter.

Having some disagreements with other members of Greenpeace about tactics, I went on to form another organization, called Sea Shepherd, which used more direct action. In 1979, our ship, the Sea Shepherd, set out for the Gulf of St. Lawrence to bring more attention to the Canadian seal hunt by directly engaging with the hunters.

These direct action tactics were continued in the fight to make the Japanese stop their illegal “research whaling” in the Southern Ocean. The TV reality show, Whale Wars, on animal planet, chronicles these efforts. I have developed some enemies over the years. Some of the actions that my colleagues and I do may seem extreme to others. We have thrown objects onto the decks of whaling ships and we have used lines to tangle up their props as well. Our actions have been successful in shortening the whaling season for Japanese whalers and saved the lives of hundreds of whales.

We consider the actions of those who hunt whales in the name of “research” to be extreme. By comparison, our actions are tame. We are not eco-terrorists.

Hearings in the Hague about Japanese whaling

In 2010 Australia took legal action against Japan over the whaling that it has been doing in Antarctica. Despite the ban on commercial whaling that was decided by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) about 25 years ago, Japan has caught an average of approximately 1000 whales each year for what it considers "research purposes." Scientists in other parts of the world do not agree that whales have to be killed into order to conduct "research" on them. There are many non-lethal methods of research. For example, whales have very distinctive fins and, since they're mammals, they must come up to the surface for air every so often. So, if we want to know how many whales there are, they can be counted just by observing them. Also, the meat from the whales that Japan hunts usually ends up on dinner plates and in pet food, so there is a commercial dimension of the hunt.

Public hearings about Japan's whaling activities in the Antarctic will take place in Holland next month. Representatives of both Australia and Japan will give their views on the issue at the hearings. According to Australia's attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus, Australia will try to argue that "Japan's whaling hunt is not for scientific purposes and is against international law." It will be interesting to see the result of these hearings.

Australia to face japan over whaling in UN court. (2013, April 12). BBC News (Asia). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22119410

Have you ever eaten whale meat? Watch this BBC video and give your opinion about whether you think the eating of whale meat is worth the damage to Japan's reputation--not to mention the damage it causes to whale populations?