Lyrics

I just want to ask a basic question, real basic
Why are we still commercial whaling? I mean…

Why? Haven’t you seen a whale at play?
Nothing is more majestic, that tail, that spray
Why would you wanna see that impaled and flayed
Into strips of meat, for sale on display?

That’s different from aboriginal hunts
That delicious Muktuk, blubber, and skin lumps
Where subsistence comes into the picture some
And everyone in the community gets a chunk

I’m talkin’ ‘bout commercial grocery store chains
It happens today in Japan and Norway
In Iceland, you can get that meat on your plate
But lately, it’s no more than a tourism play

And most tourists today would prefer to get snaps
Whale-watching has a major economic impact
For three years, Icelandic whalers didn’t catch
Their quotas, and that’s good for the finbacks

It’s 2021, this world is changing
Why are we still commercial whaling?!
Climate change, the temperature’s elevating
Why is there still commercial whaling?

There’s no debate, the earth is worth saving!
Why are we still commercial whaling?
Feel the universal love for cetaceans
We’re still commercial whaling!?

Why? Why do you think
Humans still harpoon Sei, Pilot, and Minke?
They claim it’s a humane kind of a thing
“That harpoon is grenade-tipped, they die in a blink”

If you don’t tell a Swede not to hunt a deer
Then why should a Norwegian have to blunt his spear?!
Our tradition goes back eleven hundred years
To the Vikings, we find that meat to our liking!

And yes, there is an IWC ban
But Norway defies it differently from Japan
Where they tried to use science as a subterfuge
Norway just objected like “we do what we wanna do!”

And recently Japan just straight resigned 
And kept right on whaling like in ancient times
After World War II it was major in their diets
And Western pressure is met with straight defiance

But, they have to stand up propaganda
Cause they got supply, but can’t get demand up
So they run campaigns for the kids in school
Like “Eat whale meat on pizza, it’s cool!”

Whale meat? Yeeaach, is you crazy?
Go promote corsets made from baleen!
The nostalgic past generation stays keen
But Gen Z wants to see whales free

Whaling moratoriums are tough to enforce
Countries just hunt their territorial shores
But shaming and regulations can do more
To save whales through evolving cultural mores

To keep those majestic beasts from extinction
Pollution, bycatch, and ship strikes sink them
Commercial predation may not be their biggest
Threat, but it’s an industry we can keep shrinking

It’s 2021, this world is changing
Why are we still commercial whaling?!
Climate change, the temperature’s elevating
Why is there still commercial whaling?

There’s no debate, the earth is worth saving!
Why are we still commercial whaling?
Feel the universal love for cetaceans
We’re still commercial whaling!?

Why?!