Tourists in Japan were able to get more than they bargained for when they went looking for whales in the wild: a front seat view of the Japanese pro-whaling policies in action. While watching a large whale surface off the coast of Japan, a Japanese fishing boat approached an hauled the harpooned whale in for processing. The shocked tourist included children, who complained of feeling sick and at least one child cried.

Japan’s insatiable appetite for whales has made endangered the anti-whaling treaty. Japan has used its considerable wealth of get poor countries to join the whaling organization to vote against continued prohibition on hunting. In the meantime, whales like the one killed in front of the tourists are being hunted under a transparent claim of scientific research. If nothing else, it was an ecological lesson for the tourists to take home.

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