hankyoreh

Ulsan Whale Festival in 2013

Sixteen people were detained and four arrested after over 27 tons of meat from 40 illegally hunted minke whales were discovered in cold storage in Ulsan’s North district on Apr. 6, Ulsan’s Jungbu Police Station announced on May 25.

The detainees included restaurant owners and transportation and sales managers. The market value of the whale meat was estimated at 4 billion won (US$3.4 million).

The hunting of minke whales and sales of their meat are banned by an number of agreements and regulations, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES); a Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs notice banning whale hunting; a Ministry of Environment notice on the international list of endangered species; and the Protection of Wild Fauna and Flora Act.

“The reason illegal minke whale hunting hasn’t been eradicated yet is because it’s impossible to satisfy the whale meat demand through the normal channels involving animals that are auctioned off after incidental catching or beaching, and because their scarcity makes business very profitable, with one animal going for anywhere from tens of millions of won to 100 million won (US$85,000),” the police explained. “They call it the ‘ocean Lotto.’”

With Ulsan’s 2016 Whale Festival a day away, the Ulsan Federation for Environmental Movement (UFEM) and the environmental group Hot Pink Dolphins separately announced proposals for making the festival one “the region can be proud of.”

Speaking at a press conference at the entrance of Ulsan’s South District Office that day, members of UFEM explained, “This year marks the 22nd Ulsan Whale Festival, yet the 12 billion won (US$10.2 million) spent in the eight years since Jangsaengpo’s designation as a ’special whale culture district‘ have nothing to show for it.”

UFEM also noted that the Whale Festival was left out of a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism selection last year of “promising festivals” nationwide due to a lack of content and identity.

“What it needs now is a move toward finding its own identity as a whale festival, a major change in thinking, and the direction for that should be toward a ‘whale eco-city,’” UFEM said.

The group went on to list a series of proposals, including designating the minke whale as a legally protected marine animal, designating the gray whale migration site off Jangsaengpo (currently South Korean National Monument No. 126) as a legally protected marine zone, making a political decision to ban the eating of whale meat, and granting Jangsaengpo’s fishing population whale eco-tourism rights and eco-commentary and guide duties.

In a separate statement, Hot Pink Dolphins presented its own plan for “helping the vanishing whales return to Ulsan‘s waters and creating a Whale Festival that is a happy occasion for both people and whales.” Its ideas includes halting publicity, exhibitions, and activities related to whaling culture, refusing to sell or consume whale meat, and stopping dolphin shows at aquariums.

“Despite all the criticism that’s been directed at the Whale Festival over the years, they’re trying once again this year to make it an event that’s all about ‘nostalgia sales’ and remembering the past of whaling,” the group said.

“If Ulsan truly is to became a ‘whale city,’ it needs to stop remembering the days when Jangsaengpo Port was a whaling base and consider why it is that the blue whales, southern and black right whales, gray whales, and humpback whales that used to thrive in the East Sea have now all disappeared,” it added.

“Even now, some 2,000 whales are caught in nets every year in the Korean Peninsula’s waters, and hundreds of minke whales are illegally hunted.”

Ulsan’s South District and the Whale Cultural Foundation are staging the 2016 Ulsan Whale Festival from May 26 to 29 in the area around the district‘s special whale culture district at Jangsaengpo.

By Sin Dong-myeong, Ulsan correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]