留学するための無料英語学習教材 オーストラリア人気教育番組 ”BTN”
2014年の5月に放映された、過去のエピソード ”Whaling“ を リーディング＆リスニング。
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日本とオーストラリア 捕鯨についての論争
2014年の5月に放映されたニュースです。6年ほど前のストーリですが、日本とオーストラリアが対立する問題でオーストラリアに在住する日本人には考えさせられる問題なので、取り上げました。今の若い人にはクジラを食べることはないと思います。個人的には、クジラを食べたいとは思わないですが、今の学生はどう感じるのでしょうか？
要約
Australia and Japan have had some pretty strong disagreements over whaling. Japan does it and Australia has tried to stop them. And recently it worked. An international court ruled part of Japan’s whaling program illegal. But last week, Japan was back at it just in a different area.
オーストラリアと日本は捕鯨に関してかなり強い意見の相違を抱えています。 日本は捕鯨を行い、オーストラリアは止めようとしました。 そして最近その結果が出ました。 国際法廷は日本の捕鯨計画の一部を違法と決定した。 しかし、先週、日本は別の地域で再び捕鯨を始めることに。
GIRL 1: Blue whales are the biggest creatures on earth.
BOY 1: Whales pass on their songs to other whales.
GIRL 2: Humpback whales make friends for life.
BOY 2: Sperm Whales sleep like this!
There’s no doubting these massive animals are special. But for a long time whales have been important to humans for very different reasons.
For hundreds and hundreds of years whales have been hunted. And here in Australia, commercial whaling was a big business. Whales were killed for their blubber, the fatty stuff found under their skin. Blubber was used in things like soaps, candles and cosmetics. In some countries, whales have also been a source of food.
Over time, all that hunting had a big impact. Whale numbers got smaller and smaller. And some species were at risk of extinction. People called for something to be done. In the early 1980s, a heap of countries got together to look into whaling.
Some wanted it to continue. But in 1986, the majority of those countries, including Australia, signed an agreement to ban commercial whaling. But as you’ve probably worked out, it didn’t end there. Some whaling still went on.
See, the ban does allow a certain number of whales to be killed for research. So, the same year as the ban started, Japan began a new scientific whaling program, which let them kill about 700 whales. Japan says it’s the only way for them to get accurate information. But they’ve upset a lot of people who don’t think it’s necessary to kill whales for study. Those same laws also let Japan sell the whale meat and oil after the research is finished. And that’s a big business.
Japan says it’s not a big deal, because most of the whales they’ve hunted are Minke whales, and there’s quite a lot of them. And Japan says eating whale is an important part of their culture.
MAN: Our whale meat is your beef, I think you understand my feeling. Beef for Australia is whale for us.
But others are prepared to do just about anything to stop whaling. And recently they had a win. The UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, decided that Japan could no longer kill any more whales in the Antarctic.
Some people had hoped that would be the end of Japan’s whaling program. But the ruling only prevents them from hunting in the Antarctic. They can still hunt whales in other parts of the ocean. And that’s exactly what they’re doing.
They’re now hunting whales in the north-west Pacific, which is something they do every year. But with the hunt on again, it’s brought this whole issue back to the surface.
