Whales were the largest creatures in the world. The biggest among them, the blue whale, could reach thirty meters in length and weigh over two hundred tons—far larger than even the largest dinosaurs.
Yet these massive creatures that lived in the ocean were not fish, but mammals. They possessed intelligence comparable to that of a ten-year-old child and had gentle temperaments, being extremely friendly toward humans. There had often been cases of whales saving people.
But humans were nowhere near as friendly toward whales!
Since every part of a whale was valuable and highly profitable, they had been hunted by humans with ruthless frenzy.
Whale meat could be eaten, whale skin could be made into leather bags, and whale oil refined from their fat retained its viscosity even at high temperatures, making it useful as lubricant for certain precision instruments. The economic value brought by killing a single whale was extremely considerable.
As humans slaughtered them in huge numbers, whale populations plummeted. Many species of whales were pushed to the brink of extinction, until the World Whaling Commission finally passed the "Global Convention on the Prohibition of Whaling" in 1986.
However, the convention only strictly prohibited commercial whaling by countries around the world and made no provisions regarding scientific whaling. Thus, while other countries had largely stopped whaling and begun focusing on whale conservation, Japan continued slaughtering whales under the banner of "scientific research," turning a deaf ear to the opposition of governments and organizations everywhere.
The Ocean Guardian Association's greatest enemy was Japan's "scientific whaling ships"!
The "battle" between the two sides went far beyond the one Chen Mo saw before him. In fact, they had been locked in conflict for more than a decade!
The Ocean Guardian Association possessed more than a dozen anti-whaling vessels, either donated directly