A modern myth based on pseudo-science
Recently, the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) published a paper which estimated the total food consumption of cetaceans worldwide as between 2.8 and 5.0 hundred million tons some 3 to 6 times the amount taken in marine capture fisheries. Subsequently, the upper figure has been used in undated pamphlets and press releases to promote the view that "Clearly, whales are competing with humans for limited fisheries resources".
In fact, the truth of this assertion is far from clear. In addition to concerns about the accuracy of the estimate itself, the development of the argument by the ICR to suggest that whales should be managed (e.g. culled) to reduce this competition is based upon a series of misconceptions and misrepresentations]. In short the ICR premise is one underpinned at best by a naive understanding of ecosystem interactions and at worst by pseudo-science. It is focussed, it would seem, more upon justifying the resumption of commercial whaling rather than upon an honest attempt at characterising an ecological situation in an objective manner.
