Japan again defends its hunts of the large sea mammals at an international meeting in Chile.
Comment: "A timed honored TRADITION "? At what point do the the Japanese (and others)look past their "tradition" and realize the are extinguishing a magnificent creature from the face of history ? These wonderful beings belong to the earth and all mankind. Not just the highest bidder
You guys need to check out IFAW.ORG for more info on saving these whales.
C
Comment: Has anyone out there seen Star Trek IV-the Voyage Home?
Comment:
I have worked as a scientist on whale populations for a number of years.
Firstly there is no question that almost everyone on this planet agrees to the policy of saving the whales, especially the incredible Blue whales.
So the main and practical question is how do we go about achieving this common objective of saving the whales.
Lets look at the best data and a scientific report written by leading Australian whale scientists.
The population data is available on the internet at the website: http://www.iwcoffice.org/conservation/estimate.htm. Data show that there are more than 500,000 Minke whales in the Southern Ocean. Blue whales are estimated to be about 1,150 to 4,500. If you research in more detail among scientific reports you find that the best estimates are: (i) there were about 100,000 Minke whales about 100 years ago and (ii) there were more than 80,000 Blue whales about 100 years ago. These means commercial harvesting of whales in the past had shifted the whale populations very much in favour of the Minke whales. The Minke and Blue whales eat the Krill as their main food. Independent criterion to confirm this conclusion is that the age of sexual maturity of the Minke whales had declined from 12 years to about 8 years during the past 80 years.
This Blue whale is the only whale at risk of extinction.
The most disturbing news is the report published in a leading journal in 2004, see: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v432/n7013/full/nature02996.html. It states that the Krill population in the Southern Ocean has declined by about 80% since the 1970s. There are scientific opinions that this is due to global climate changes. This news is disturbing because Krill is the main food for the Minke whales and the Blue whales.
You do not need to be a rocket scientist to say that the best way forward is to cull the Minke whales. The International Whaling Commission over a number of years had developed a management policy for whales. It states that harvesting of a whale population could be done so that the population is maintained at about 72% of its original population. Clearly this means you can cull the Minke whales by tens of thousands a year without any risk to the Minke whales.
But the most important scientific conclusion is that you need to cull the Minke whales in order to save the Blue whales.
Given all these scientific facts it is difficult to understand the Australian Governements policies on whaling. If it is solely based on ethical grounds that we should not kill any whale we should state that is the basis of the policy. We should then also be clear that in doing this we could contribute to the extinction of the Blue whales by not culling the overpopulated Minke whales.
Comment: Humans are omnivores, but we unlike other omnivores are human... being human enables us to feel for others (including creatures), we being human understand that whales play an extremely important part of our ecosystem... we being human understand that we have wiped way too many animals from the face of this earth, animals what will never come back... we being human understand the PAIN whales endure as they are harpooned... only to be dragged alive for hours... only to be chopped up in pieces while still being ALIVE. Whaling is not humane... it is BARBARICK.
I personally love eating deer as well as 'deebeer2001', but also understand that a deer only suffers minutes... not hours of pain when being killed for consumption.
Comment: Humans are omnivores, but we unlike other omnivores are human... being human enables us to feel for others (including creatures), we being human understand that whales play an extremely important part of our ecosystem... we being human understand that we have wiped way too many animals from the face of this earth, animals what will never come back... we being human understand the PAIN whales endure as they are harpooned... only to be dragged alive for hours... only to be chopped up in pieces while still being ALIVE. Whaling is not humane... it is BARBARICK.
I personally love eating deer as well as 'deebeer2001', but also understand that a deer only suffers minutes... not hours of pain when being killed for consumption.
Comment: We already don't eat lions b/c there aren't enough of them. And we eat goats b/c they are plentiful. ITs a numbers thing.
Comment: 3 cheers to the Japanese!!! Like they said, they consider deer to be sacred, but we eat deer, don't we (at least some of us! I love deer, by the way).
We have pushed this thing too far already! Humans are omnivores. Don't forbid the lion from eating meat, the goat from eating plants, or the man from eating both! A no-brainer, I would think!
Comment: 3 cheers to the Japanese!!! Like they said, they consider deer to be sacred, but we eat deer, don't we (at least some of us! I love deer, by the way).
We have pushed this thing too far already! Humans are omnivores. Don't forbid the lion from eating meat, the goat from eating plants, or the man from eating both! A no-brainer, I would think!
Comment: I find it so odd that Japan is having so much trouble bending on this one. The world does not like the idea ok killing the largest, possibly 2nd most intelligent mammal out there.
Why do they insist on it? Tradition? What tradition? The Japanese culture has become more secular then our own!
Comment: Three cheers to the Chileans for their foresight and activism to save these creatures from complete idiots like the Japanese. Only an ignorant, egocentric culture of the minority would try to impose their cultural will on the international community. Last time they did that, we nuked em. Sometime soon the human race really needs to pull their collective heads out of their butts and start protecting this planet.
Comment: What dont these people eat. My God someone tell them they need to start eating each other. Whats next after they kill off every animal on the planet? Dont they have better stuff to worry about like if Nike will keep there slave labor plant open?
Comment: Their analogy to deer hunting does not hold. If Japan wishes to protect deer on their territory and hunt whales (also within their territorial waters) so be it However Japan goes out into International waters to hunt whales. It does not have the right to harvest whales from the territory of the world. This is a shared resource of the world and Japan has a population that is but a fraction of the world's population and a land mass that is an even smaller fraction of the worlds population. It has NO right to go out side it's waters to hunt whales. The loophole of "scientific whaling" should be shut down. There is no science to killing whales. If they continue to use this loophole they should be prevented from selling any of the whale parts thus eliminating all reasons for killing the whales.
Comment: ??? ?????? of ???????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ????????? I can say one thing, it`s not common to eat whale meat here.?????? have never eaten and never noticed sales of whale meat products in stores as it is not readily available. It is something Japanese can easily live without . It is problem of mentality in people do not like to lose face and be told what to do from different culture. I personally hope they would not insist on whaling! The time when they tought cetaceans are fish is over long ago....
Comment: @ Silentmajority:
Lets take one step at a TIME (pun intended:-): whaling is a form of hunting. Hunting throughout most of history used to be an activity necessary for survival ??? we have to eat, right? So you think that something we humans and our ancestors have been doing for millions of years is a Japanese cultural tradition and should be recognized as ???World Heritage???? Why stop at hunting for food, how about sheltering? Is sheltering a Japanese tradition, too? I'd say both are human traditions that cannot be usurped by any individual nation. Speaking of human traditions, another one is our having lived for most of our history (only present times excluded) in harmony with the environment - I suggest that in the future you make this one a Japanese tradition instead of whaling !
Comment: Mr. Morishita's comparison of dear and whale is not a valid one because, unlike whale, dear is not an endangered species. It is this danger of extinction that is the main reason for the worldwide opposition to whale-hunting, and not Mr. Morishita's implication of intolerance of cultural differences (I'm sure Morishita-san doesn't really believe that himself). Continuation of whale-hunting in spite of their endangerment is in my opinion crassly disrespectful of nature and its diversity ??? whale-hunting nations can well do without whale meat & it's TIME (pun intended :-) we moved forward from last century's mentality of merciless & ruthless exploitation of the environment.
Comment: This is the website owned by bruce@bltranch.net. They all suck!
http://www.bltranch.net/
Comment: I've got a better idea, let's lift the ban on nuking Japan! I'd much rather have more whales in the world and fewer Japanese. I bet China would second the vote.
Comment: I found your silly website and saw a picture of your silly family members. You kill horse regularly to make both ends meet, right?
Comment: Nuke yourself! Chinese suck!
Comment: I've got a better idea, let's lift the ban on nuking Japan! I'd much rather have more whales in the world and fewer Japanese. I bet the Chinese would second the vote.
Comment: You ate only horse meat that you got Mad Horse Desease!
Comment: Nuke yourself!
Comment: Try tasting whale bacon and whale cutlet!
Comment: Chile has a president who is mentally-retarded.
Sink all Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd boats that disrupts the precious tradition of whaling, which must be recognized as the World Heritage.
Comment: Did you bump your head really hard or something?
Comment: Japan's arguments for the resumption of Whaling have got absolutely nothing to do with the Whales. It is all about the Japanese thirst for global power and domination again. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and no pun intended, as they failed both militarily and economically to fulfill their goals they are now resorting to subversion. Laugh at your peril as the Japanese are very stoic and they will endeavour to do thid over time, not today, not tomorrow, but eventually.
Comment: The IWC needs to be made up only of those countries that have a whaling background and not a number of economic bunnies for Japan. The whole thing is a farce and should again be thrown open on the floor of the United Nations to establish a suitable institution that can adequately address all of the relevant issues of ALL countries, including the most important ones of sustainability and environmental vandalism. Japan does not own the right to decide where, when and how it can fish the worlds oceans at other countries expense.
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