Claim whales are depleting fish stocks; meat already traded based on murky rules


ULSAN (Yonhap News) ― When South Korea announced plans earlier this month to resume scientific whaling, the decision caused a rush of domestic and international criticism. But in one small city, a party was thrown. Residents of Ulsan, a coastal city 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul, gathered to celebrate a move they hoped might bring back some of the city’s former glory as a hub of whaling.

“We welcomed the news,” said Chun Myung-sook, the owner of a whale meat restaurant. She speaks nostalgically about the days when whaling was legal. “Back then there were many restaurants and the area was very active. Now there are so few of us.”

The hopes were short-lived. The South Korean government last week bowed to global pressure and retracted its plan to start scientific whaling. “Even if it is for scientific research, we have to take into consideration that this has emerged as a sensitive issue at home and abroad,” a senior government official told Yonhap.

Whale hunting was banned in Korea in 1986, as it began to pose an existential threat to whale stocks. Still, there are restaurants in Ulsan that rely on murky laws and suspect enforcement to continue selling the local delicacy of steamed and raw whale meat.

Chun’s and the other whale meat restaurants are concentrated around Jangsaengpo port, an out-of-the-way area separated from the city center by clusters of factories. There were once whale meat restaurants all over Ulsan; now diners can only get whale in the dingy port area.

Seoul’s initial decision to allow whaling for purposes of scientific research was announced at the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting in Panama on July 4. The South Korean delegation said research needed to be conducted because whales were eating up fish stocks off the South Korean coast and making it harder for fishermen to catch enough to earn a living. 

Fishermen have described a large increase in the number of whales in the waters they work since the ban on hunting went into effect. And those whales are hungry.

The National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives (NFFC) argued in a July 9 release that whales eat 3.5-5 percent of their body weight per day. Minke whales weigh between 5 and 15 tons depending on maturity. The Ministry of Land, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs estimates that there are around 16,000 of them off the Korean Peninsula, and the NFFC says those whales eat around 12 percent of squid and anchovies in the area, causing losses of 438 billion won ($384 million) annually.

The NFFC has not been clear about how it arrived at these figures.

“The whales are a serious problem for us,” said Shin Won-soon, 56, a fisherman who operates in the area.

On a rainy afternoon, Shin and his crew were onshore due to poor visibility and rough waters. They planned to go out between 3 and 7 a.m. early the following morning to fish by lamplight. In the meantime, they relax, drinking makgeolli and eating sweet and salty snacks.

The difficulties and risks associated with acquiring whale meat are reflected in its price. A simple plate with small portions of a few cuts of whale goes for between 40,000 and 60,000 won in Jangseangpo, high prices compared to other meat and seafood options.

“Whale meat used to be something that poor people ate, but it has become the exact opposite,” said Chun.

With its greasy texture and gamey smell, whale is not to everyone’s taste. But there is still demand for whale meat, and large financial incentive for fishermen to “accidentally” catch them. Greenpeace has called the scientific whaling proposed by South Korea “just thinly disguised commercial whaling.” Fishermen who operate in the area refer to catching a whale as striking the “lotto” due to the huge sums of money whales command, anywhere from 30 million to 100 million won.

If a whale is caught, government officials are called in to assess the animal and determine if its capture was accidental.

According to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, 1,400 whales were caught off the coast of Korea last year, 100 of them minke whales, and 21 of the 23 reported cases of illegal whaling reported to the International Whaling Commission in 2011 were in South Korea. There are also believed to be cases when fishermen set up their nets in places where they expect whales to pass, or wait for a stuck whale to die before reporting it to the local authorities.

As support for their decision to resume whaling, the South Korean delegation in Panama argued that Korea has a tradition of whaling that goes back thousands of years. There are indeed 8,000- or 9,000-year-old rock wall carvings in the Ulsan area that depict whale hunting believed to be from long ago. But other than that, there is reportedly no evidence that whale hunting was customary in Korea between then and the beginning of Japanese control in the early 20th century when the practice of commercial whaling was instilled.

Japan is the only country in the world that has continued whaling until today, despite the same kind of international scorn Korea received with its plans to kill whales for research. Some have suggested that in moving back towards whaling, South Korea was seeking the same international privilege granted to its old rival.

“Our government gave up on restarting whaling, but Japan has gotten to continue with it. Why is that?” asked a middle-aged man at a whale meat restaurant who declined to give his name.

Family and tradition have kept Chun, now 64, in the business of whale meat her whole life. Now, like the whaling industry in general, the future of whale meat restaurants including Chun’s is uncertain. She is the third generation to run her family’s restaurant, which was founded by her grandfather. She says her only child, a son, works for a major corporation and has no interest in taking over. She hopes to convince her daughter-in-law to take the reins next.

Chun also hopes local pressure on the government can bring back commercial whaling. It has been suggested that the now overturned decision to move back toward whaling was motivated by political appeals from the Ulsan area, an important base of support for the ruling party.

Still, Chun is only cautiously hopeful. “It would take four or five years for it to become fully legal again,” she said. “By then, it will be too late for me.”