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Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

japantoday.com

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Re: Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

#31

Post by macintux »

j9461701 wrote: post #26
yboris wrote: post #2

My head spins about how schizophrenic the vast majority of the population is when it comes to meat consumption and love of animals. People shed tears over pets, yet pay others to abuse animals (factory farming) just to enjoy a meal that's equivalently tasty to easily available options. People will condemn the Japanese for eating whales or dolphins, the Chinese for eating dogs, meanwhile they themselves cause the suff…

We don't just condemn Japan for eating whales and dolphins, we already banned them from doing so. Instead Japan claims the whales they're killing are for "scientific research", which is bull and they're clearly in total violation of international accords. But the widespread international condemnation has caused Japan to double down on their whaling industry, as a symbolic attack on outsiders who they view as destroyi…

There's also an intelligence problem. Octopi, whales, dolphins are very smart animals. (Pigs too, but I try not to think about that.)

Re: Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

#32

Post by macintux »

elif wrote: post #24
achamayou wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chickens and cows (and dogs) aren’t threatened with extinction. Different sets of people have different objections, but as far as whales are concerned, it’s mostly a conservation issue.

No, but animal agriculture (via disproportionate habitat destruction) threatens the extinction of many species.

Animal agriculture is in general extremely wasteful and destructive, but it's conceptually vastly easier to stop hunting a few hundred whales by a few countries than to effectively tell everyone in the world they need to become vegetarian.

Re: Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

#33

Post by komali2 »

elif wrote: post #24
achamayou wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chickens and cows (and dogs) aren’t threatened with extinction. Different sets of people have different objections, but as far as whales are concerned, it’s mostly a conservation issue.

No, but animal agriculture (via disproportionate habitat destruction) threatens the extinction of many species.

But habitat destruction happens from farming cotton and coffee and sugar as well... So wouldn't it make more sense to pinpoint the issue (habitat destruction/species extinction) rather than cast a wide net over all meat eating?

Re: Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

#34

Post by ObsoleteNerd »

jondubois wrote: post #23

I tried Minke whale when I was in Iceland. Unfortunately for them, they taste very good - Maybe the best meat I've tried. It's like a cross between beef and tuna but with a deep, complex (and very slightly gamey) aftertaste. It was surprisingly cheap too. In spite of this, I'm not sure I would eat it again though; while eating it, I kept getting flashbacks of a video I saw of a whale being harpooned and pulled out of…

As someone with experience in animal farming (through family and friends), the whale issue seriously does confuse me. The way commercial meat farming is done is outright fucking disgusting. It's one of the biggest environmental issues of our era.

Endangered species should be protected, absolutely. But if we're going to rag on countries for fishing un-endangered whales, it's very much hypocritical.

"The IUCN Red List labels the common minke whale as Least Concern.[30] The Antarctic minke whale is listed as Data deficient.[31]

COSEWIC puts both species in the Not At Risk category [1]. NatureServe lists them as G5 which means the species is secure on global range [2]."

(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minke_whale)

For reference, I try eat as little meat in life as I can in general, and when I do eat it, I try to as ethical as possible. I'm not perfect, but I'm always trying to be better. I try not to judge other cultures on their eating habits though, when we're systematically destroying the planet so our cheeseburgers can be $1.

Re: Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

#35

Post by komali2 »

wpdev_63 wrote: post #11
yboris wrote: post #2

My head spins about how schizophrenic the vast majority of the population is when it comes to meat consumption and love of animals. People shed tears over pets, yet pay others to abuse animals (factory farming) just to enjoy a meal that's equivalently tasty to easily available options. People will condemn the Japanese for eating whales or dolphins, the Chinese for eating dogs, meanwhile they themselves cause the suff…

This is why I am incredibly excited about the impossible burger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebNeUihciDI It's the ultimate fake burger that has a 1/10 of the environment while being vegan. Now if there was an equivalent for chicken then it I would never eat another animal again!

I hate to be a downer but that impossible burger tasted like fried flaxseed to me. Nothing meaty about it at all.

I think the best route for global veganism will be vat-grown meat. I haven't had a chance to taste any but it seems the most logical route - why grow the animal when you can just grow the muscle tissue? After the process is made efficient it should be cheaper for ranchers, better for the environment, no animals have to die, tastes the same... Win/win/win/win

Re: Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

#36

Post by starpilot »

jondubois wrote: post #23

I tried Minke whale when I was in Iceland. Unfortunately for them, they taste very good - Maybe the best meat I've tried. It's like a cross between beef and tuna but with a deep, complex (and very slightly gamey) aftertaste. It was surprisingly cheap too. In spite of this, I'm not sure I would eat it again though; while eating it, I kept getting flashbacks of a video I saw of a whale being harpooned and pulled out of…

Minke whale population is super sustainable. They're cows of the sea.

Re: Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

#37

Post by avar »

slimsag wrote: post #18

Meanwhile, Norway kills more whales than Japan on average according to the WDC[1] and proceeds to increase their quota for number of whales they can kill[2] all while running government-backed campaigns to market whale-meat as hip-and-trendy[3]. The real gruesome thing here is how we're not just hunting whales, but that the ones we do hunt are roughly 60% of the time pregnant ones[4]. [1] https://us.whales.org/whalin…

Whatever anyone thinks about whaling, that article from The Guardian has a clear agenda of taking things out of context. It just says "Norway has announced a 28% increase" in year-over-year whaling.

That's true, but compare that to historical values:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NorwegianWhaleCatches.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Norway#/media/File:...

It's pretty telling that they're not opting to tell you that it's a gradual ramp-up which is still around 1/2 of what they were doing in the 1980s.

The larger context here is that in 1992 Iceland, Norway et al. partially split off from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and formed their own North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO)[1].

Whaling quotas are now at an impasse where these countries decide them unilaterally, because the members of the IWC won't even have the discussion of what would be a reasonable science-based quota.

I have yet to see any suggestion that the whales being hunted in the North-Atlantic by these countries are threatened by these whaling practices. An large year-over-year increase on a relatively small quota tells you nothing. You need to look at how large the total stock is, how long it takes to renew etc.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Marine_Mammal_C...

Re: Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

#38

Post by emodendroket »

jondubois wrote: post #23

I tried Minke whale when I was in Iceland. Unfortunately for them, they taste very good - Maybe the best meat I've tried. It's like a cross between beef and tuna but with a deep, complex (and very slightly gamey) aftertaste. It was surprisingly cheap too. In spite of this, I'm not sure I would eat it again though; while eating it, I kept getting flashbacks of a video I saw of a whale being harpooned and pulled out of…

Yeah, it is definitely pretty tasty. I'm not sure that the harpooning is really much more gruesome than what happens to other animals we're going to eat.

Re: Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

#39

Post by zhenekas »

yboris wrote: post #2

My head spins about how schizophrenic the vast majority of the population is when it comes to meat consumption and love of animals. People shed tears over pets, yet pay others to abuse animals (factory farming) just to enjoy a meal that's equivalently tasty to easily available options. People will condemn the Japanese for eating whales or dolphins, the Chinese for eating dogs, meanwhile they themselves cause the suff…

Well it is all about how you kill animals. People kill animals for food the ones that they grow for food and other animals which population is threatning ecosystem. But killing out of some retarded tradition is idiotic. Especially endangered spieces

Re: Japanese fleet catches 177 whales in latest hunt

#40

Post by emodendroket »

bribroder wrote: post #22
kgwgk wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine many people opposing whale hunting would also oppose whale farming.

The issue which most people oppose is neither whale hunting nor whale farming but whale extinction. Sei whales and certain subspecies of Minke whales, which are the specific species mentioned, are listed as endangered and near-threatened, respectively, on the IUCN Red List.

This article suggests the Minke whale is of "Least Concern." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minke_whale#Population_and_con...
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