Are whales really worth saving?

I am a member of the Pacific Whale Foundation.
I figure human beings are pretty much the dominant species on earth, and it is what it is.
But I am a little uncomfortable about wantonly killing whales.

I know that once their oil lit lamps all over the world, and it is used as a lubricant in precision machinary, but this is the 21st century, and there are plenty of substitutes for that.

I know there is controversy about the Intuit and other tribes and their traditional whale hunt, the IWC etc. I don’t want to get into it with tribal cultures and some of their practices, unless they want to blow buildings up. That is not what I am talking about.

I am talking mostly about industrial style whaling, which does not make a lot of sense to me. It simply does not “seem right” to be slaughtering whales.

I have some friends who think I am a little inconsistent in my principles, since in just about everything else I am pretty much laissez faire, and in my warrior days I was ruthless.

But I am sypathetic to the whales, and I refuse to argue about why am so.
You may or may not agree.
Are whales worth lobbying to save?