Unveiling the Whale: Discourses on Whales and Whaling (review)

Individuals often interpret information in ways that conform to their own worldviews rather than challenging dominant beliefs. In a world of pro-environmental discourse many students of environmental politics will ignore opposing views. Unveiling the Whale: Discourses on Whales and Whaling extensively documents all of the actors involved in modern whaling, both pro- and anti-, and their interests and actions, in an effort to expose multiple worldviews simultaneously. Kalland presents each side's views on whaling and the rhetorical and symbolic methods that altered the discourse about whaling. The book first discusses the anti-whaling symbols and rhetoric that forms the current dominant discourse. This dominant discourse is then juxtaposed against the alternative (pro-whaling) discourse, while concurrently arguing that subjugation, discrimination, and hypocrisy are present in discourse and policies adopted by governments and the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Three contributions of this book stand out as particularly important and useful for scholars of international environmental politics and whaling. First, Kalland argues that anti-whalers have engaged in "theft" of the consumption of whales. They have done so in three ways: by directly interfering with whaling efforts; by organizing boycotts of whale products and of corporations connected in some way to whaling; and by creating a discourse around the barbarity of whale consumption. After destroying the commodity cycle for whalers, the anti-whalers have built their own commodity path by "consuming the Superwhale" (p. 135) through tourism, personification of the whale, adoption and support of protecting whales, and generation of discourse to describe whales as common property rather than an open-access resource.

The second contribution involves demonstrating the lack of coherence in policies for whaling in traditional national cultures versus aboriginal cultures. For example, Kalland presents the contrast between a local Japanese community's carefully-documented proposal for limited Minke whaling against a Russian aboriginal community's proposal with much less documentation or control to hunt Grey whales. Lack of clear definitions within the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling generated space for a socially constructed definition of aboriginal communities. The Convention requires that they be "cultural minorities without elaborate political structure who have been oppressed by invaders … [possessing] only simple technologies, have little economic sophistication and be largely outside the market economy" (p. 111). This definition disenfranchises local communities with a historical cultural whaling practice that do not meet this definition.

The third contribution of the book is the explanation Kalland provides for the polarization of the whaling debate and the lack of communication between the two sides of the debate. He points out that each side speaks more to members of its own group than to the other side, which increases competition to become more extreme and polarized in views and actions. The IWC meetings, "an arena for tournaments of value" (p. 118), have become a place for like-minded activists on either side to compete for status within their cohort rather than to engage in debate on policy and science with the opposition group. The IWC, in other words, has become a highly political arena rather than one focused on dealing pragmatically with the whaling issue and reconciling differences between the whaling and anti-whaling nations.

Kalland also discusses the additional issues relevant to whaling communities in Japan with a strong historical culture of whale consumption. These communities currently face unemployment, and restrictions on catches in other fisheries may create additional pressure to continue whaling against the tide of the dominant international anti-whaling discourse.

The book provides enough detail and background so that it may serve as a textbook on the conflict between pro- and anti-whaling activists while providing a stronger focus on the whalers' perspective than do most other books on the subject. Although much of the material on the anti-whaling discourse is found in similar form elsewhere, it is a necessary component for a complete image of the conflict.

The book does not attempt to step beyond an anthropological description of events. In its entirety it provides a relatively...