Doesn’t this sort of amount to an admission that all the years of hunting in the Antarctic under the guise of research were in fact commercial whaling?
They were researching whether anyone would stop them from becoming commercial whalers.
Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
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Re: Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
#82Re: Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
#83Disgusting. Time to make another Sea Shepherd donation, I guess.
Re: Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
#84Faroe Islands and Norway catch more whales than Japan [1] but for some reason don't receive nearly the same level of outrage. [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whales_Nordic.png
Fun facts:
- Japan learned modern whaling (and bought ships/tools) from Norway, over 100 years ago
- Norway's last catch of Minke whales (the only whales they hunt, supposedly) was about 1,052, out of an estimated ~100,000.
- Japan has recently hunted a variety of threatened and endangered species, such as Beaked, Minke, Bryde's, Sei, Northern Fin, Humpback, Sperm, Western Gray, and North Pacific Right.
- A significant percentage of whales caught are by-catch of other fishing operations, which critics claim is often intentional.
- Since 1988, Japan has caught 16,323 whales through "Special Permit Catches".
- The research group that does the whaling gets its funding from the Japanese government, and Kyodo Senpaku, the company that processes and markets the whale meat.
- The International Court of Justice declared in 2014 that Japan's whaling was not for any scientific purpose.
From these facts, I gather that the problem is that Norway is catching a "reasonable" amount of whales that are not threatened, and that Japan was catching endangered and threatened species in large numbers and lying about the intention behind it.
Re: Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
That another country is also evil doesn't make what Japan is doing any better. They both need to stop. There is increasing evidence that whales have a huge role in climate change. Their poop feeds plankton which in turn absorbs carbon. And their physical bodies when they die sink, moving significant amounts of carbon to the bottom where is stays in that ecosystem far away from the atmosphere. If the Japanese and Norw…
> That another country is also evil doesn't make what Japan is doing any better. They both need to stop. While true, it looks bad for people who are on the fence and/or are ambivalent. If the people expressing the outrage aren't outraged about the whaling in the Faroe islands, it looks like they don't really care about stopping whaling but instead just want to protest for the sake of it (or they're racists against th…
It is true that I am probably not angry enough about the Faroe whale slaughter, but they are much further away from me than Japan. I live on Canada's west coast, where Greenpeace began. There are far more flights between Vancouver and Tokyo than Vancouver and the Faroe Islands, and many more business and government connections. So it should be no surprise that I am more angry at Japan.
I am also no fan of the Canadian arctic whale harvest. That it is classified as "aboriginal whaling", and is much smaller, makes no difference to me. Dead whales are dead whales regardless who is killing them.
Re: Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
#86I had hoped when there was an exposé about whale meat, poisoned with heavy metals, being fed to students that this would discourage the practice in Japan: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-whalemeat/whalemeat... Sadly no. (I also got the impression that people didn't want to eat whale meat, which was why it was being foisted onto kids.) Do the countries that hunt whales test the whale meat systematically?
" "I'm a bit nervous but happy that we can start whaling," one whaler told AFP news agency before setting sail. "I don't think young people know how to cook and eat whale meat any more. I want more people try to taste it at least once." " I don't know that whale meat is economically viable.
It seems every day the older generation becomes a worse threat for the younger generation
Re: Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
#87I had hoped when there was an exposé about whale meat, poisoned with heavy metals, being fed to students that this would discourage the practice in Japan: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-whalemeat/whalemeat... Sadly no. (I also got the impression that people didn't want to eat whale meat, which was why it was being foisted onto kids.) Do the countries that hunt whales test the whale meat systematically?
" "I'm a bit nervous but happy that we can start whaling," one whaler told AFP news agency before setting sail. "I don't think young people know how to cook and eat whale meat any more. I want more people try to taste it at least once." " I don't know that whale meat is economically viable.
I don't understand the sheer bone-headed stubbornness of Japanese whaling, given that nobody even likes or eats whale. Who is pushing so hard for this, in the face of international condemnation? And why? Don't tell me it's "traditional" - modern whale hunting bears no resemblance to its "traditional" roots. Do people really care so much about seeing whale on shop shelves, even though they don't actually care to eat it? Is it a childish backlash against being told what to do? What is it?
Re: Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
#88Disgusting. Time to make another Sea Shepherd donation, I guess.
[deleted]
Re: Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That another country is also evil doesn't make what Japan is doing any better. They both need to stop. While true, it looks bad for people who are on the fence and/or are ambivalent. If the people expressing the outrage aren't outraged about the whaling in the Faroe islands, it looks like they don't really care about stopping whaling but instead just want to protest for the sake of it (or they're racists against th…
It is true that I am probably not angry enough about the Faroe whale slaughter, but they are much further away from me than Japan. I live on Canada's west coast, where Greenpeace began. There are far more flights between Vancouver and Tokyo than Vancouver and the Faroe Islands, and many more business and government connections. So it should be no surprise that I am more angry at Japan. I am also no fan of the Canadia…
I believe there are still occasional whale hunts in the strait of juan de fuca, by the Makah Trube from Neah Bay.
Re: Japan resumes commercial whaling after 30 years
#90Faroe Islands and Norway catch more whales than Japan [1] but for some reason don't receive nearly the same level of outrage. [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whales_Nordic.png
What?! If I don't know about it, just imagine how many "average" people like me who are out of the loop when it comes to ocean animals. How can the world powers come together to sign a ban on this? This is awful.