Should commercial whaling be banned?

[Radojica]

As long as humans are looking upon life on the planet Earth as something which is there just for the sake of humans, while forgetting the importance of biodiversity of life as a whole, i don't see, i cannot see the bright future of human beings. Planet Earth is not here just because of us at this very moment, we are just borrowing it from our descendants, we are just travelers and the planet Earth is the mean of traveling. If we take everything now there won't be anything for others in the future. One thing is absence of some sort of life because of evolution, but totally another, disappearance of life because of our selfishness. So, my answer is yes, it should be banned.

And to answer to those who are wondering like Eldrich is: number of whales is decreasing. You need years for one whale to enter the age of reproducing and you have one, maybe two per generation, while rabbits or deers, or perches you have from 5 or 6 per generation to a few dozen of them. Big difference.

[The Lawspeaker]

I am mildly in favour of a limited hunt on certain non-endangered whale species - and I actually believe that quota's should remain enforced (and they are rarely met, at least by Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands that catch less then their quota) and that there should be an international conducted by these countries (joined by ex-whaling countries like the Netherlands and Britain) into the possibility of ranching such whales on a commercial basis - a bit how you would kill excess or weak animals in a natural reserve.

I think that for the Dutch economy a limited whale hunt and--- even better whale tours could be beneficial as the economy in the north (Friesland and Groningen) is struggling. And such small- scale endeavours should be embraced.
Having said that: there should be a limited tax put on whale products as well as the rule that every part of a whale is to be used for something, and that tax has to be used (set by law) to further study in to the preservation of endangered maritime (thus includes whale) species.