Whaling

The hit Korean drama “Jewel in the Palace” features a scene in which the protagonist Janggeum makes a Korean-style pizza with whale meat. Since she has lost her palate and never tasted whale meat before, she asks the royal chef how it tastes. He replies, “It tastes like beef.” Boiled whale meat tasted more like beef than fish when I tried it several times at Busan`s Jagalchi Market in the early 1980s. Perhaps it was because whale is a mammal, not a fish. Some say whale meat tastes like a cross between beef and tuna when eaten together. Certain sushi restaurants in Seoul serve whale meat but taste-savvy gourmets do not consider it genuine whale meat because those restaurants mostly serve dolphin meat.

At the International Whaling Commission’s annual conference, the Korean delegation announced that it will submit a plan on whaling for scientific research to the commission. Since Korea banned whaling to protect whales in 1986, the whale population in the East Sea is known to have increased and caused massive damage to the fisheries industry. Countries opposed to whaling, including Australia and New Zealand, have objected to Korea`s move. Since these countries are major beef exporters, they might have an ulterior motive behind their objection to whaling. Are they opposed to whaling because they are worried if whale will become a substitute for beef due to the similar taste of the two meats?

The Bangudae Petroglyphs in Ulsan from the Neolithic Era includes images of a whale’s characteristics and whaling. Whaling using whaling ships in Korea began at the port of Jangsaengpo in Ulsan in 1899. Foreign whaling ships caught almost all blue whales, which are more than 20 meters long, fin whales, and Korean gray whales. After Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, minke whales were mostly caught. In the past, Jangsaengpo enjoyed such a robust economic boom due to whaling, one saying had it that “Even dogs carry banknotes in their mouths in Jangsaengpo.” But since the whaling ban, only accidental catching of whales while fishing for other fish has been tolerated. Police screen a whale that has been caught with a metal detector to check for signs of harpooning. Permission for the whale`s sale comes only after the mammal is confirmed to have been caught accidently.

Whaling is considered nostalgic. Whalers do not wait until a whale is caught after placing a net. Instead, they trace a whale in person and struggle to catch it. They shoot harpoons into the world’s largest animal at the very short moment it surfaces to breathe. This type of fishing symbolizes the dreams, will and challenge of humans. Adolescents in the 1970s, who suffered hardship stemming from their attempts to adapt to society, sang the song “Whaling” en masse as if shouting to urge friends to go to the East Sea and “catch whale breathing like legend.” It would be nice to see adolescents today, who are also struggling, to nurture a “little pretty whale” swimming in their minds.

Editorial Writer Lee Hyeong-sam (hans@donga.com)