David Feldman's op-ed article ("Save the Whales," Aug. 24) well illustrates Oscar Wilde's quip about the cynic who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. The whale is truly King of Beasts, and yet is credibly identified with no threats to humankind. The countries that mainly want to hunt whales, Japan and Norway, are rich OECD nations that have no economic excuse whatsoever for continuing to do so. Norway, moreover, in good Scandinavian fashion, wags its finger at the rest of us for all kinds of causes when they do not particularly affect Norway directly. The pricing scheme is a good textbook exercise, but begs the question of why we cannot just leave whales alone in their majesty. If the Japanese and Norwegians still insist on killing whales, perhaps we should let them do so, but only in the "traditional" fashion--in small boats with hand-held harpoons; in other words, "man to man" just as Ahab and Moby Dick, whose story Professor Feldman should perhaps reread.

Philip D. Sherman, Singapore