Why Do People Still Hunt Whales? (Update)

Freakonomics Radio•15 de agosto de 2025•00:37:32•

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For years, whale oil was used as lighting fuel, industrial lubricant, and the main ingredient in (yum!) margarine. Whale meat was also on a few menus. But today, demand for whale products is at a historic low. And yet some countries still have a whaling industry. We find out why. (Part 2 of “Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.”)

SOURCES:
- Jay Alabaster, doctoral student at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
- Bjorn Basberg, professor emeritus of economic history at the Norwegian School of Economics.
- Eric Hilt, professor of economics at Wellesley College.
- Kate O’Connell, senior policy consultant for the marine life program at the Animal Welfare Institute.
- Paul Watson, environmental activist and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

RESOURCES:
- “The Soviet Union Killed an Appalling Number of Whales. I Wanted to Know Why,” by Ryan Tucker Jones (Slate, 2022).
- “Behind the Smile: The Multi-Billion Dollar Dolphin Entertainment Industry,” by World Animal Protection (2019).
- “Japan to Resume Commercial Whaling, Defying International Ban,” by Daniel Victor (The New York Times, 2018).
- “Why Is There Not More Outrage About Japan’s Barbaric Practice of Whaling?” by Boris Johnson (The Telegraph, 2018).
- “Margarine Once Contained a Whole Lot More Whale,” by Sarah Laskow (Gastro Obscura, 2017).
- “3 Million Whales Were Killed in the 20th Century: Report,” (N.B.C. News, 2015).
- “The Spectacular Rise and Fall of U.S. Whaling: An Innovation Story,” by Derek Thompson (The Atlantic, 2012).
- In Pursuit of Leviathan: Technology, Institutions, Productivity, and Profits in American Whaling, 1816-1906, by Lance E. Davis, Robert E. Gallman, and Karin Gleiter (1997).
- “Norway Is Planning to Resume Whaling Despite World Ban,” by Craig R. Whitney (The New York Times, 1992).

EXTRAS:
- “The First Great American Industry,” by Freakonomics Radio (2023).

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