Japan hunting protected humpback whales!!!

Japan hunting protected humpback whales!!!

www.jpost.com

Japan's excursion to the arctic that left on Sunday for a whale hunt has raised an international outcry, specifically by Greenpeace. The hunt will include the humpback, despite international laws protecting the animals

"What they are doing is against international law," says Theodora Karchovsky, spokesperson for Greenpeace Israel. "We must do everything we can to stop them."

The whalers plan to kill up to 50 humpbacks. If they follow through, it will be the first large-scale hunt of humpbacks since they were put under international protection in 1963 under a moratorium in the Southern Pacific.

The American Cetacean Society estimates the humpback population has recovered to an estimated 30,000 to 40,000

(visit the link for the full news article)

My grandfather charted a fishing boat out of Cape Cod and I saw hump back whales all the time when I was a kid. It’s magical to be in the presence of them. One time my grandfather stripped down to his underwear, he wanted to swim with them. The humpbacks were all over the place, even swimming next to the boat checking us out. My dad and uncles wouldn’t allow it and convinced him to get dressed. I believe humpback, and most whales are very intelligent. Have you ever seen a whale defend its calf from a pod of orcas? They feel sadness and they seem to demonstrate love for each other, humpbacks also sing the most beautiful songs. Those fifty whales took, collectively, at least a 1000 years to grow up and that will be all be snuffed out for what?

www.jpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This story absolutely enraged me when I saw it on CNN!!

When I read the part of the article about how important it was for them to preserve their "whale-eating culture," I got so angry. Go ahead and hunt all of the whales that you want, and screw the rest of the world!

Plus, the fact that they have killed so many whales under the cover of "science" is ridiculous.

We don't own the planet... We share it with all of the other animals. But most of the time, humans can't even respect each other, so I guess stories like this shouldn't shock me anymore.

reply to post by jojoKnowsBest


mankind is the most savage of all creatures
and mankind will bring their ultimate dismise


where is anti ship missile when u need one

Is it OK for indigenous American populations to hunt whale?

I ask because the US government (and public, and greenpeace, and CNN and so forth) seem to have no problem with the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission taking 50 bowheads a year from an estimated population of only 8,000.

I read this today and was appaulded. It's not just the Humpbacks but they are planning on killing thousands of whales in the name of "science". What sense does that make? And where are those that would defend the planet? It IS a planetary issue. How about a small flotilla of warships that say, "Um, NO, you're not going to do this."

Hopefully species like the whales will out live us and will continue after we've exhausted ourselves on this small rock and can flourish.

reply to post by intrepid


Why not just send the local cops out to the docks in Alaska and arrest the natives who are whaling? Same thing, innit?

Originally posted by vox2442
reply to post by intrepid

 

Why not just send the local cops out to the docks in Alaska and arrest the natives who are whaling? Same thing, innit?

No, it isnnit.

The whalers plan to kill up to 50 humpbacks. If they follow through, it will be the first large-scale hunt of humpbacks since they were put under international protection in 1963 under a moratorium in the Southern Pacific.

The Japanese mission also aims to kill as many as 935 minke whales and up to 50 fin whales.

And this is for science? That's what the claim is. Are you waiting on your whale fin soup? Regardless what it does to the planet?

i dont know if you heard about this or not its kinda old..

www.cbsnews.com...

natives used machine guns to kill this whale.

i heard the op's story on npr. they say its in the name of scince. you cant really prove that it isnt. im not saying i agree with it. but the japanise have just as much right to collect them as we have to protect them. the whales are in international water. there isnt much that joke called greenpeace can do. but burn more fosil fuel taking their prostes boat out there to waste time..

Originally posted by DaleGribble
i dont know if you heard about this or not its kinda old..

www.cbsnews.com...

natives used machine guns to kill this whale.

OK. they killed ONE whale. This is a Japanese flotilla of ship going after MANY whalses. Can you see the difference? Including a protected species.

i heard the op's story on npr. they say its in the name of scince. you cant really prove that it isnt. im not saying i agree with it. but the japanise have just as much right to collect them as we have to protect them.

Does that mean that, as it is international waters, the flotilla could be sunk? Sorry, international waters.

the whales are in international waters.
there isnt much that joke called greenpeace can do. but burn more fosil fuel taking their prostes boat out there to waste time..

So if Greenpeace wasn't involved you might have an interest in this? Just because you don't like an organization, doesn't make them wrong. Kep using the planet up? Not a good idea imo.

reply to post by intrepid


no i dont think green peace not being involved would change my opinion. i was just saying that the ships claim to be doing it for research. i cant prove they are just as you cant prove they arent.


i guess you could sink a ship in international waters just as you could in a intercoastal water way. but that would more than likely be seen as a act of war, and not very likely to happen. but if you feel that way you have that right.

btw. you left out just one sentence from the entire rest of my ealier post. i dont think its right. but this is their planet too and they have the right to use its resources.

I actually respect the Japanese for sticking true to their culture and traditions and not succumbing to this mob pressure being thrust on them by eco-fascists.
The hunt for whales and the need for whale meat is not merely a nutritional choice, but rather a cultural necessity. Besides, these whalers are way more humane than some "moby dick" hunt and it is in fact the whalers who are in more danger than the whales.

I just hope they have taken sufficient measures to ensure their safety from the Seashepard pirates when they try to ram their fleet again. If a loss of a 1000 whales is all it takes to "endanger" a species than that species is inevitably meant to become extinct. Our desire to artificially "sustain" them cannot prevent the inevitable.

Originally posted by intrepid
No, it isnnit.

The whalers plan to kill up to 50 humpbacks. If they follow through, it will be the first large-scale hunt of humpbacks since they were put under international protection in 1963 under a moratorium in the Southern Pacific.

The Japanese mission also aims to kill as many as 935 minke whales and up to 50 fin whales.

And this is for science? That's what the claim is. Are you waiting on your whale fin soup? Regardless what it does to the planet?

You`re thinking of shark. The Chinese do the shark-fin soup thing.

The end goal of the Japanese mission is to show that commercial whaling is sustainable. The reason they have decided to take this route (rather than following Norway and just ignoring the moratorium and instituiting a full-scale resumption of commercial whaling) stems from the initial discussions, in which Western nations pleaded that indiginous groups had a historical right to whaling because it is a part of their culture - while Japan (which has it`s whaling culture documented in writing as early as the 8th century) was told that it had no right to claim the same.

The end goal of the science is to show that it is sustainable, to allow the Japanese to continue to do what they`ve always done.

And what,. exactly, does it do to the planet? 50 humpbacks from a population of 100 is devastation. 50 from a population of 60,000 to 120,000 is hardly an impact.

What bothers me about the whole thing is this: Japan`s catch is about the same as Norway`s, and about the same as the catch allocated to aboriginal groups. Why does the media leave the latter two alone, and focus their attention solely on the Japanese? I see it as scapegoating, frankly. The Japanese are not the ones who hunted whales to near-extinction levels as a cheap source of oil and nothing else. The Japanese did not send warships into Boston Harbour to force the US government to allow Japanese whalers to use the port as a base - that would be Perry and the yanks.

Originally posted by vox2442


And what,. exactly, does it do to the planet? 50 humpbacks from a population of 100 is devastation. 50 from a population of 60,000 to 120,000 is hardly an impact.

What about the rest of the whales that they intend to cultivate? Not just the humpbacks? This is a LARGE incursion. Will it be the last? Probably not as your own post stated that this is to determine if Japan could continue to do this.

Personally I don't care what other nations do, or claim to do, it's all for personal gain. I'm Canadian(from Nova Scotia) and I've seen what overfishing can do to an ecosystem.

Originally posted by intrepid

Originally posted by vox2442


And what,. exactly, does it do to the planet? 50 humpbacks from a population of 100 is devastation. 50 from a population of 60,000 to 120,000 is hardly an impact.

What about the rest of the whales that they intend to cultivate? Not just the humpbacks? This is a LARGE incursion. Will it be the last? Probably not as your own post stated that this is to determine if Japan could continue to do this.

Personally I don't care what other nations do, or claim to do, it's all for personal gain. I'm Canadian(from Nova Scotia) and I've seen what overfishing can do to an ecosystem.

Ah, Nova Scotia. I lived in Halifax for a while, years and years ago. Spent some time on the south shore as well - that was the first place I ever ate seal. Yeah, they`re protected, but just about every guy I met who made a living on the water would make a point of taking a shot at one if no one was around. Gets rid of the competition, they all told me...

Anyway, the scare tactic at play here is that if commercial whaling is allowed, it will resume to the insane levels of the 19th century - and there is absolutely NO reason to assume that it would. The chief reason for those levels was not meat - it was oil to drive the industries of the western world. And there is very little use for whale oil these days.

Do you know they actually teach the East Coast fishery collapse in the junior high schools out here? And they tend to be quite critical of the small role that Japan played in it, as well. They also teach the collapse of the Great Lakes fisheries. I was a bit surprised to see all that, but I think it speaks volumes about the attitude towards proper scientific management of fish stocks that exists here. When Japan was found to have overstepped it`s bluefin tuna quota in the Med recently, the gov`t came down like a ton of bricks on the fleets with fines AND voluntarily cut the quotas. That`s caused a shortage here, which people have pretty much just shrugged their shoulders about and picked something else from the menu (contrary to reports on CNN that treated the shortage as something approaching mass panic).

I`m in a fishing town - and a whaling town, historically. People here at the front line are very conscious of the need to properly manage stocks. While there is a local demand for whale meat, it`s accepted that the supply needs to be kept low to preserve the numbers. If the whalers were given free reign tomorrow, I can`t see an increase of more than 10% overall in the catch - the public is too aware of the need to properly manage stocks to accept otherwise.

Originally posted by vox2442
Is it OK for indigenous American populations to hunt whale?

I ask because the US government (and public, and greenpeace, and CNN and so forth) seem to have no problem with the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission taking 50 bowheads a year from an estimated population of only 8,000.

I feel that the practice of "ceremoniously" hunting the whale by the indigenous populations here is outdated. And the story about the whale being killed with the machine gun is completely appalling. I was upset when I heard about it the first time.

I see where you are going with posing that question to the thread... It would be quite hypocritical to criticize the Japanese for engaging in whale hunting while saying that it was okay for the Indians here to do it. I am opposed to such an activity, regardless of who is taking part.

The thing that gets my goat about the Japs hunting humpbacks is that they dont recognise Australian waters and regulary take whales from our waters.. Invading our territory fishing illegally whether they have research painted on their boat or not.. whilst even as our Goverment deplores the action ..John Howard refuses take action against them .. if they where indonesian fisherman they'd blow their boats in two.. but ahhh alas .. but to bow to the rich man.. really sad and gutless but welcome to Australian politics..

Some Native Americans recently got in trouble for killing a whale. There tribe has rights to take a curtain amount of whales per year but these guys just went out on there own without permission from there tribe. The poor whale took 9 hours to die; that’s a long time to suffer. These are intelligent creatures and when one whale suffers like that the rest of the pod can tell what’s going on and it traumatizes them. 50 whales out of a population a few hundred thousands is genocide for all I care. There are billions of us and only a handful of these marvelous creatures. There is no need to kill these whales, and even with today’s technology the whales go through great suffering when they die. Also how do they not know one of the whales they kill is not a nursing mother then the calk indirectly dies? High intelligence animals are known to die of depression and that could happen when mass amounts of pod members are slaughtered.

Originally posted by AlienADHD
The thing that gets my goat about the Japs hunting humpbacks is that they dont recognise Australian waters and regulary take whales from our waters..

I`ve heard that claim before, but I`m not convinced that it`s based in fact. Are we talking about the 12nm territorial limit, the 24nm contiguous zone claim, or the unfounded yet popular claim to everything between Aus. and Antarctica that seems to be talked about by every second Aussie I meet? It`s seldom made clear in the press which one they mean.

Chances are im going to get flamed for this but oh well lol..

I may be wrong but isnt it something that theyve been doing for hundreds of years? I hate to say it but what would happen if cows suddenly became endangered and we were all forced to quit eating them (i know its a bad analogy but i cant think of anything else atm, and the fact that that would happen is slim to none) Granted i dont agree with the barbaric practices they use to kill them and slaughter them...it it a centuries old tradition

Please correct me if im wrong on this