Traditional whaling has become more effective with the new tools. In Canada, off the coast of British Columbia, a whale is caught. It is spotted by the radar of a ship in the Canadian whaling fleet and brought back to port to retrieve the fat, flesh and bones. Images of the harpooned whale, dragged in the water and stranded at the port, where men cut it. Images of the fishermen, of the pointer in action.
In the Danish archipelago of Feroe, the collective slaughter of rare whales for consumption takes place every year. The animals are directed in a handle where they are trapped and killed with knives, butcher hooks... Some of the animals will not even be skinned and the bodies will be left in the water. Images of the massacre alternate with demonstrations in London against whaling, fishing products from these boycotted islands, and the interview with Ivo SMITH of the Environmental Investigation Agency.
In 1978, off the island of Madeira, fishermen hunted whales in boats. After harpooning the animal several times and exhausting it, it is the time of the killing: they pierce the lungs of the whale with a lance. It’s a slow agony.
In Japan, whaling is considered by some as a tradition, a culture. For others, like Tetsuro Shogi, the whaling owner and owner of the factory is a lucrative business. Finally, for the workers, the factory pays them a wage partly in cash and partly in kind. A worker gets angry against anti-whale hunting: "It feeds the whale, it makes it live, think about it".
In 1978 in Madeira, in a fishing village practising the whaling, skinning of whales, many of which carry whales, pulled out of the bowels by the fishermen and thrown.
Icelanders fish for whales in the summer. Once brought back to port, the whale must be skinned very quickly. Nothing is lost, it represents about 2 million francs. One part is made for animal food, bones for fertilizers and fat ends in margaine or explosive.
In Japan, a whale is cut. Workers cut the meat quarters into smaller pieces. Tetsuro SHOGI, owner of the factory and whaling owner, explains that the depopulation attracts tourists, mainly because of the controversy over whaling. School children attend the operation.
A report devoted to the mobilization of Greenpeace activists against the resumption of whale fishing by the Norwegians, thus violating the moratorium passed several years ago. The images of the demonstrations alternate with interviews with James, a young British activist and G.B LEAPE, representative of Greenpeace USA.