The Japanese kill roughly 900 Minke whales, 100 Sei whales, 50 Bryde's whales, 10 Fin whales and three sperm whales each year.
Minke whales are not threatened. They are categorized "Least Concern", and there are about 660,000 Minke whales globally. The Japanese therefore harvest about 1 whale out of every 750 Minke whales.
Sei whales: Even though they are formally listed as endangered, there are an estimated 54,000 Sei whales. So the Japanese harvest 1 whale out of every 540. This is not a threat to extinction.
Bryde's whales: Japanese take 50 a year, and there are 100,000 of them globally.
Fin Whales: Japanese take 10 a year, and there are about 100,000 globally.
Sperm Whales: The Japanese harvest three a year. The world population of Sperm Whales is unknown, but is thought to be in the hundreds of thousands.
Hope this is helpful.
These number aren’t a lot.
Personally I think there is a knee jerk reaction here to any animals or environmental group. It might surprise you, and it did surprise me, that mark levin and many other conservative leaders oppose whaling.
What’s the point? Not one wants to eat the meat, we’re well beyond using them for fuel. The article is right, this is probably nothing more than a japanese honor game.
How many of your fish and gamers out there believe we should do away with laws protecting game from over harvesting? Or would your depopulate the forests of deer and the lakes of bass too? Maybe your don’t care if your children get to hunt and fish, or see whales.