this really makes me angry

[keitaro]

If i was a japanese ctizen i would be pretty angry having money used to rebuild my town for whaling ... hate to say this but i hope the sea sheppard sinks them.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3385164.htm

 

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/whale-watch/japan-uses-285m-in-disaster-funds-for-whaling-claim-20111207-1ohzc.html

 

by the way if you support anti whaling and would like to contribute to their work against the whaling fleet donate here

 

http://www.seashepherd.org/

[The_Ghan]

Anti whaling is my thing, and I'm sure I've mentioned it before.  I've personally paid for many a cup-a-soup on the Sea Shepherd and will continue to do so.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm not anti-whaling, but obviously catching (and killing) 900 whales for scientific reasons is hard to swallow. Some countries still have groups of people who have a hard time getting through winter if they're not allowed to hunt some whales though.

 

Using earthquake relief money to fund whaling is just downright wrong, no matter how they try to justify it.

[keitaro]

Some countries still have groups of people who have a hard time getting through winter if they're not allowed to hunt some whales though.

 

i can understand that like iceland for example. Where importing foods is not as easy as other countries due to where they are etc.

 

but japan does not need to whale there is plenty of other sources of food for them. When the whales run out only then will they understand what they have done.

 

It's a large ocean out there with diminishing populations. The longer it goes on the harder it will be to repopulate their species.

[Martijn Meerts]

It's not just about the food or how easy it is to import stuff, it's also about culture. Certain groups/tribes have lived off whales for centuries, and you really can't expect them to stop catching the few whales they catch per year (the traditional way I might add, not using some modern technology whaling boat) just because some money-hungry idiots decide to mass-murder most of the population.

 

I know certain indigenous tribes in the North of Norway can live off catching 2 or 3 whales per year, and they use pretty much every part in one way or another. That kind of whaling I agree with, as long as the whale population allows it, which it would if it weren't for mass-whaling.

[keitaro]

yep and thats fine but japan isn't doing this for culture there doing it for $$$ they still whinge every iwc about only being able to chop upand eat 10 fin whales a year for "scientific purposes". fin whale being an endangered species.

 

 

estimated less than 30,000 left in antartic waters where previously thought to be up to almost 400,000 many decades ago

[gmat]

It's really that the Japanese fishing fleet and the whales (and dolphins closer to home) are competing for the same fish resources. The 'scientific' whale hunting is really an excuse to cull the sei whales. It largely feeds on krill, copepods and zooplankton and its chief competitors are clupeid fish, (herring and its family) basking sharks and right whales. It also feeds on sardines in the southern hemisphere. The average sei whale takes in 900 kg or 2000 pounds of sea food each day. That's about 810,000 kgs or 900 tons each day. The Japanese catch krill, herring and sardines. So I guess that overfishing means that any means to increase fish and krill populations without limiting fish catches (and preserving jobs) are to be explored.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[The_Ghan]

If there were so many whales that they were obstructing shipping, washing up dead on beaches every other day or seriously depleting fish stocks then I might have a different opinion.  However, there is only one species on this planet that is so prolific as to seriously merit culling ... and it's not whales.

 

I remember going bezerk in the early 1990's when whales were spotted off Maroubra beach.  I rang my grandfather to see if he wanted to come down and watch them with me.  He said, "Why would I want to do that?  When I was young we used to watch them every day!".  I was gobsmacked!  This was the first time in my life that humpback whales had been spotted just a few hundred meters off shore (except for the odd beaching).  It was a huge deal to me.  At a later family gathering we talked the subject over.  He admitted that he never knew that the whales had ceased to come in close to shore.  Now of course, we see them every year, and in greater numbers.  It is truely spectacular.

 

On a sad note, there (apparently) is no saving the blue whale.  With approximately 2000 world-wide they are dying out quicker than they can reproduce.  Extinction, it seems, is inevitable.  The main problem seems to be that this species travels vast distances in its annual migration.  They are spread so few and far between that they can't hear each other over the noise generated by the shipping lanes.  The trillion dollar solution is to halt shipping for 2-3 months per year to enable these graceful giants to actually find each other.

 

We have a lot to answer for!

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[gmat]

I hear you, The Ghan. Some people have speculated that the inability of the larger whales to replenish their numbers might be due to illegal hunting by rouge nations. I don't know how true this might be. Perhaps it's also due to depletion of the fish stocks due to overfishing, so that more whales cannot be supported. When I was young, I enjoyed whale blubber with sweetened miso sauce. Kind of like a sashimi. I refrain nowadays as my very small bit to help the whales.

 

I've often said that the last whale to perish will no doubt be hunted and eaten by ......

 

Best wishes,

Grant