I'm sorry Super Wizop Snowman, you can consider it done.

Sleeping Dragon, I take offense to your comment of the asterisks. Please, I made an apology for all of that, I shouldn't have done it.

And omg, make everything a huge deal. This is whats truly sickening.

It's sickening because it causes even more controvercy. Which leads to.... Nevermind.

Please. Just stop!


(No asterisks needed!)

If the Japanese want to 'farm' whales....like cattle...that's all perfectly fine with me....all they need do is, as with cows, sheep, etc....build a farm...and breed them.

OK, so they will have to dig a stinking great big puddle to have them swim in...but...if they want them so badly I'm sure they can forego a golf course or 10 to dig one.

Then they can breed their own...and wait, there's more....it'll be like a REAL LABORATORY ...they can even wear white coats and look like dorks....and call it 'research'.

 

 

Look....just let the pathetic tossers come to Australia and research the pods of whales that beach themselves and die here every damn year.  They can eat as many as they like ... saves digging graves for them, too.

Or...

In the spirit of other forms of 'fishing'.....limit them to their OWN territorial waters...and keep the hell out of ours.

 

Developer Sleeping Dragon ....the issue is with whaling...it IS about specie extinction.

If the Japanese go unchecked you'll be describing whales to your children....they'll never see one.

I've sent you an e-mail, Cindi. I apologize to everyone for posting on this thread. I apologize to myself for some other things. Peace out.

Thanks Bill.

My opinion on the whaling situation as a Marine Biologist:

Some whale species are quite intelligent (e.g. Orcas and other more 'Dolphin-like' species), however, lots of whale species are rather unintelligent. Whaling has been traditional in lots of countries like Greenland, Canada (the traditional hunting by Inuit), Siberia (same there) and also on some isolated villages in northern Japan. In these places whale-meat was often the most important source of protein and peoples lives would depend on how successful their whaling methods were.

Outside these rather isolated places whale-meat was traditionally looked down to and it was only rarely consumed. In Japan the consumption of whale-meat was only supported and pushed by the government during the second World-War as a means to defeat an increasing famine.

Whale meat nowadays is still used in some of these isolated places as the main nutritional item and Inuit and other traditional hunters (including some of the Japanese villages) have the permission to hunt whales in their waters. This is not a problem since these people only take what they need and often use more traditional hunting methods.

However, in Japan whale meat has become a 'in'-item, it is "cool" to eat a whale burger and it is a status-symbol to go and eat a whale steak in a fancy restaurant. This has lead to an increase in demand. Subsequently, a big whaling-fleet emerged which started to hunt whales not just in the waters around Japan but also followed the whales to their feeding grounds in the Antarctic waters.

The problem with whaling is indeed the danger that some whale species can still go extinct. During the last big whaling period several species (including Blue-whales and Humpbacks) where driven as close to extinction as you can get.

Since then the whaling population has recovered a bit, but not enough to survive another onslaught. Whales are relatively long-lived species and hence breed rather slow. Many whale species spend the summer-time in Arctic/Antarctic waters and then migrate to the tropics during the winter months to breed.

We know that about 800+ Humpbacks are travelling up the Australian coast every year to breed in the tropical waters. However, only about 65+ Humpbacks go to New Zealand to breed. The concern over the Japanese picking up whaling in the Antarctic waters comes from fact that they could completely wipe out the whole New Zealand Humpback-whale population in a couple of years. How would they know which whale comes from where? This could be the same for other small whale populations on the globe.

Considering the fact the whale meat is not an item that is needed in Japan (it is also not a traditional food-item for the majority of the Japanese) but only a luxury item, there is absolutely no excuse to start hunting whales at a stage where the whale population has not yet fully recovered from the last big kill.

Thankyou for this information. I appreciate it very much.

The local DNR's and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife in the United States do a fairly good job of managing wildlife and fisheries. They issue permits to hunt or fish to manage species populations. For some non-indigenous species there are no limits, while for some thinning species there are slot limits for sizes harvested and stiff penalties for non conformance.

It's too bad there is not an international governing body that has as much authority as the US Fish and Wildlife does here. But then, if there were, enforcement could lead to war.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/kenhall/whale.html 

Makes for 'fun' reading...

1. "Killing whales in Australian waters is an offense. We hope HSI’s case in the Federal Court will embarrass the whaling company and the Japanese government, and push the Australian government into prosecuting the whaling themselves," said HSI’s Wildlife and Habitat Program Manager Nicola Beynon.
2. The Australian Whale Sanctuary is in the Commonwealth marine area, beyond the coastal waters of each state and territory. It includes all of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone extending to 200 nautical miles (350 kilometers) from the coast, and includes the waters around the Australian Antarctic Territory and Australia's external territories, such as Christmas, Heard and Macdonald islands. (Note item 6 - Icelandic Cod War)
3. Under the law, there are penalties of up to $110,000 and/or up to two years' imprisonment for illegally killing, injuring, taking, trading, keeping, moving, interfering with or treating a cetacean in the Australian Whale Sanctuary.
4. The International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. "Since 1987, in defiance of the moratorium, Japan has dressed up its whale hunts as research. Citing a loophole under the international convention, which allows for scientific whaling, Japan claims the hunts are legal and kills approximately 440 Minke whales every year in Antarctic waters," the HSI says.
5. In the last four years, HSI estimates nearly a quarter of all the whales slaughtered in Japan’s Antarctic research program have been killed in the Australian Whale Sanctuary.( Ocean Conserve )

damn

My take on this is probably similar to that of Jafo. I think any animal is probably okay to eat if the animals are farmed and not mistreated. We all need to eat to survive, and there's nothing wrong with eating something that tastes good. So if one enjoys cat meat, dog meat, horse meat or giraffe meat, or whatever meat, fine. But I think these animals should be farmed and raised for that sole purpose. The conditions in which they (the animals) are raised and killed must also be as humane as possible. As long as it's for eating, any animal could be raised and killed. On the other hand, I am greatly opposed to killing for sports, for fun. Killing isn't and shouldn't be fun. Killing an animal is a necessity when we want to eat. I have killed animals myself. Killed chicken, killed pigs, killed a cow once. Nothing fun there. Quite discusting actually. But I lived on a farm that only ate what they raised themselves.

I can see that you are quite passionate about the Japanese whaling, Jafo, and quite rightly so. It is very unnecessary! The Australian public should petiion and pressure our government to implement stricter laws regarding this practice. Dunno about Aussie wide, but I'd be more than willing to start one in my neck of the woods. Yes, we should refuse entry into our waters and ports to whaling ships. They either make it back to Japan without help or perish, don't you think!

Right on about Howard too

Whale hunting shows how primitive, selfish and greedy the human race is. We concern ourselves with personal trivialities while entire species are being wiped out

"What a piece of work man is"... indeed, something to be proud of...