Does the Ownership Saves the Whales?

In the last class, there were some comments about economic ecology. It took the sushi as an example, which relates to the Japanese seafood industry. There are thousands of whales in the world killed by Japanese every year. Even though the World Whaling Association has past the law that prevents Japan from over hunting too many whales, the Japanese government still ignores it and insists in killing whales every year.

However, after WWII, Japan had developed its economy and the people there no longer need whale meet to support their food crisis. In fact, killing whales cannot bring Japan any economic profit, then why does Japan insist in doing so? The Japanese government says it is because killing whales is a tradition of Japan, it shows the spirit of the ancient Japanese. Some critics said it is because Japan wants to be independent in food security instead of importing too much American beef.

As a result, Japan insists in killing whales is in order to gain its far-reaching goal instead of the short-run profit. So, does the ownership can really prevent whales from being killed while the killers do not concern about the profit of them? Maybe people will think about it before they killing a elephant of their own in Africa, or a cow in Austrilia, even a rare fish with a GPS on it. Will Japan think as the same way? They probably will keep hunting whales because it is just the tradition of the country, like we do sports and keep on diet everyday in order to keep us healthy. Will the ownership really resolve the problem at this point? Maybe not.