Japan President's Plan: 'Kill the Whales'

Shinzo Abe's plan to resume commercial #whaling called "rubbish" and "senseless"

Despite the international ban that took hold in 1986 and years of ensuing controversy over its "scientific" hunting, president of Japan Shinzo Abe has sparked outrage across the world by announcing his intent to restart the nation's commercial whaling industry.

Abe's comments to revitalize a true return to industrial whaling, however, was met with immediate condemnation by conservationists and governments.

Japan President's Plan: 'Kill the Whales'

a reply to: LrdRedhawk

Yay the Sea Shepherds will make more fun TV! I love watching them harass the Japanese Whalers. Personally I think that whaling is wrong unless it is solely a means of subsistence. Past that? Well don't get me started on the Japanese methods of destroy entire nations fisheries illegally....

IMO they are some seriously disgusting people in how they treat other life forms.

a reply to: LrdRedhawk

Here's a better link;

New York Times

I guess ole Abe wants to make glow-in-the-dark foods to help save on the electrical bills.

Cheers - Dave

Do these people not stop and think, the more they fish these whales, the less there are. Im pretty sure the amount of whales taken out of the ocean, does not equal the same amount being born. so there will be less and less of them each year.

a reply to: LrdRedhawk

According to a report I saw on TV, the Japanese people, after WWII, were fooled by the US govt into believing that a whale and a dolphin were responsible for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hence their hatred and want to slaughter these animals.

I believe there was a plan to try and make them think that a cow and chicken were actually responsible as we don't mind the slaughter of those animals. I do not know if the plan was successful as I fell asleep before the report ended.

originally posted by: Glassbender777
Do these people not stop and think, the more they fish these whales, the less there are. Im pretty sure the amount of whales taken out of the ocean, does not equal the same amount being born. so there will be less and less of them each year.

Actually, the Whale population has been increasing across pretty much all species, even with the Whaling activities.

It's also a misnomer to describe the IWC Moratorium as a "ban" - it isn't. Countries didn't even have to sign up to it, they could "object" and ignore it.

Japan could, if it so wished, simply remove itself from the IWC (why it signed in the first place is a mystery) and happily kill those Whale's and Dolphins that they believe are responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

a reply to: Feltrick

Hehe -

Beat me to it.

a reply to: Feltrick

XD Hahaha

But no really. Yuck



Act like they are "decent", cave to the international pressure, get a littla good PR in the process, then sneaky like revamp 2.0 efforts under a lot less fake pretenses. Suck it, world!

Not cool

I don't really understand why people have a problem with Whaling - as long as it is done sustainably, what makes them any different from any other animal we slaughter for food?

Sentimentality is at the root of all the objections - Whales are "majestic" and "beautiful", apparently, Cow's are not.

originally posted by: stumason
I don't really understand why people have a problem with Whaling - as long as it is done sustainably, what makes them any different from any other animal we slaughter for food?

Sentimentality is at the root of all the objections - Whales are "majestic" and "beautiful", apparently, Cow's are not.

If they didn't ban whale fishing there wouldnt be any left most likely.. that said all fish species are or will be endangered.

It just a big problem if 1 country says; we dont care! we just catch more ourself then.. thanks!

hSalt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048
www.cbsnews.com...

That's when the world's oceans will be empty of fish, predicts an international team of ecologists and economists. The cause: the disappearance of species due to overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change.

So in a way I guess it doesn't matter much if the Japanese keeps fishing on whales they are gone anyways in 2048 (plus minus).

a reply to: Plugin

Well, yes, because there was no concept of "sustainable" anything back then - in fact, the original purpose of the IWC moratorium was to allow stocks to recover, not protect any cuddly-wuddly animals the tree huggers like.

Nowadays, there is a lot of awareness about needing to be sustainable - the species the Japanese like are also some of the most abundant around.

originally posted by: stumason
a reply to: Plugin

Well, yes, because there was no concept of "sustainable" anything back then - in fact, the original purpose of the IWC moratorium was to allow stocks to recover, not protect any cuddly-wuddly animals the tree huggers like.

Nowadays, there is a lot of awareness about needing to be sustainable - the species the Japanese like are also some of the most abundant around.

Sure but it's kinda hard to say this is ''sustainable'' and if you get rid of the ban, you can't let all country's fish on them (again)..
I mean it's getting way complicated then!
Only when there are way 2 many then you can give an ''ok'' like we do with many species, when they become a problem.. you do something about it.

In holland it was also a culture; fishing whales as in many country's, Japan just doesn't care about such international law.
So if they don't they should be sanctioned really.

originally posted by: stumason
I don't really understand why people have a problem with Whaling - as long as it is done sustainably, what makes them any different from any other animal we slaughter for food?

Sentimentality is at the root of all the objections - Whales are "majestic" and "beautiful", apparently, Cow's are not.

I truly feel there is a difference, might be wrong but yeah. What we are doing with cows and industrial megafarming is bad on the whole other end of the spectrum, but I digress

We know very little about the oceanic ecosystem and its vital balances. It is us. When it's done I'd bet we are. Why even chance it? Just how I feel.

On top of the fact the "demand" for this meat seems to be a fabrication from an INDUSTRY that does not want to stop being just that.

a reply to: Plugin

Most countries which went Whaling (the UK was a world leader in it) did so for the Oil which had important industrial uses and generally did not have any interest in eating them - in fact, British whalers would drain the oil out of a carcass and bin the rest. Most European countries stopped whaling in the 60's when alternatives to Whale oil were produced.

Only the Nordic countries in Europe ate Whale meat - and these are the one's who didn't sign up to the IWC and continue to hunt Whales for food, such as in the Faeroe islands.

Now there are alternatives to whale oil, there would be no "rush" on whales if hunting resumed - the only nations interested would be the Japanese and Norwegians and, as long as it is done to sustain numbers, there would be no problem.

a reply to: stumason

I couldn't help myself...Since then all I can hear is...

The world is a vampire, sent to drai-eya-eyain. Secret destroyers...

And Cartman singing Poker Face.

I think I need professional help.

originally posted by: stumason
I don't really understand why people have a problem with Whaling - as long as it is done sustainably, what makes them any different from any other animal we slaughter for food?

Sentimentality is at the root of all the objections - Whales are "majestic" and "beautiful", apparently, Cow's are not.

They're more intelligent than humans. And its murder.

a reply to: Unity_99

Granted, they are intelligent animals, but more intelligent than humans? Me thinks you've succumbed to sentimentality and without any application of logic.

If they were more intelligent than humans, they'd have demonstrated this by now through one (or a combination of) several methods:

1. They wouldn't be so easily caught
   
2. They'd have combined their resources and attempted to fight back after indentifying a threat
   
3. or, they would have attempted to initiate dialogue in order to broker a peace agreement
   
4. there would be evidence of a far more advanced society - granted, they have no hands with which to manipulate their environment, but even so, they don't do an awful lot with that "vast intelligence"
   

Also, you're postulation that Whales are more intelligent then equating their slaughter to "murder" falls flat when you consider the fact that some species of Cetacean hunt on and eat each other. Surely, then, you must call these creatures "murderers"? Especially so when you consider that they rarely eat their entire kill, instead just eating a select part and letting the rest float away, not to mention the fact they usually kill infants, which only makes this killing "worse"?

To finish, here is an article from Scientific American, which discusses Cetacean intelligence. The conclusion is that they are not "smarter", not by a long shot - their brain structure has far fewer neurons than a human brain, relative to size, not to mention the fact they have radically different ways of viewing the world, which requires the use of a fair chunk of their large brains to process the information.

originally posted by: stumason
a reply to: Plugin

Most countries which went Whaling (the UK was a world leader in it) did so for the Oil which had important industrial uses and generally did not have any interest in eating them - in fact, British whalers would drain the oil out of a carcass and bin the rest. Most European countries stopped whaling in the 60's when alternatives to Whale oil were produced.

Only the Nordic countries in Europe ate Whale meat - and these are the one's who didn't sign up to the IWC and continue to hunt Whales for food, such as in the Faeroe islands.

Now there are alternatives to whale oil, there would be no "rush" on whales if hunting resumed - the only nations interested would be the Japanese and Norwegians and, as long as it is done to sustain numbers, there would be no problem.

So there are (also) alternatives for whale meat, there is just no real need for catching whales.

It's just basicly; business / money.

It's the same with any fishing, where money seems more important then survival of some species.

And yes in some ways like having these HUGE meat producing factory's everywhere in the country, in some ways I don't know what's worse but I guess I just don't care anymore really.

Thanks for your post.

metropolis japan