Japanese Whalers?

Question

Isn't it a bit of a joke that Japan can get away with hunting endangered humpback whales under the guise of 'scientific research'. I just found this article and was apalled that despite the Japanese admitting to selling the meat at restaurants, there has been no attempts at stopping this whale hunt.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22830542-23109,00.html

I am not a vegetarian or a greenie, but I do believe in preserving what we have left of our natural world. I also understand that Australia was quite the whaling country in the 50's and 60's. But when an endangered species such as the humpback is being hunted just so some Japanese restaurant can make AU$6.30 a plate, I am disgusted.

Should this continue it may, in nearby years to come, cripple the AU$3 billion Australian and New Zealand whale watching industries.

Why aren't the world leaders doing more about it?

If you were a world leader, what would your 'diplomatic' solution be?

Answer 1

I remember when I was still in Secondary College the so called scientific research and the amount of whales that had been inhumanely killed by harpooners. So many were killed and yet none of our government would do anything about this as Japan was catching and killing these whales using a loophole in the 1986 global moratorium that allows "lethal research'' on the giant mammals.

To this day environmentalists say it is simply commercial whaling in disguise and I agree entirely.

Genderbi, FYI tuna aren't left on the boats to flap around and die as you have said.They are killed quickly as they need to be bled and are usually caught on a wet line these days rather then using nets, alot less inhumane and it saves our dolphins. Still there are more tuna out there then humpback whales.

Besides when they harpooned a whale it doesn't mean that they have killed it and some whales die a slow and agonising death due to harpooning. Why cant they leave the endangered species alone and stop making excuses for killing these mammals, when in fact they are using for their own deliquesce.

At least with the likes of other animals that are killed for meat purposes they are farmed, not going out and killing them in the wild.

I really hope that the nations would see through this scam and do something about it. But they keep saying unless they are in our waters they can do what they want. What about the rights of an endangered species?

Answer 2

It's hard to believebut in the mid-ninties, a Japanese whaling ship wandered into Canadian waters and a Canadian military vessel sunk the ship and killed everyone on board!  And even more unbelieveable, there was barely a mention of it in the media in either country.  Of course this has to do with them being in Canadian waters and it's illegal there but still.

Anyway, to the very best of my knowledge, "scientific" whaling if done under the proper guidelines does not endanger whales. The whale crisis ended years ago.  There was a combined world effort and the populations are very high now.  Even the Japanese stopped whaling for a long time until stocks came back up.  If there are reports of ships killing endangered whales, they would certainly be put in prison in Japan too.

EDIT

Come on with the humane thing. Killing animals will never be humane to certain amount of people no matter if we haul the whale out of the ocean and give it a lethal injection or not. It's whale, not an Etheopian.  People gotta eat and whales are food the same as tuna.  They let tuna flop around for hours on deck before they die you know. Poor tuna.  No one cares about you because it's unpopular...

Answer 3

Whaling, technically, is regulated by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which was once made up of members from countries that practiced whaling, and were interested in conservation and protection of whales, in the same manner that commercial fishing groups do.

Unfortunately, the US sold out the IWC, by inviting so-called disinterested parties, such as tinpot african dictators and other political figures from landlocked non-whaling nations, in an effort to gain a voting bloc in IWC matters. The end result of this is that the nations still interested in whaling have lost their voice, and their experience can no longer be relied upon to inform decision-makers about the real-life ins and outs of modern commercial whaling.  IWC now does not regulate any whale harvest, except on paper. This is why Japan is able to continue their traditional harvest of whales at admittedly drastically-reduced levels. No stakeholder participation.

I have to wonder, however, why you are disgusted about the Japanese choice of diet. What they are doing is the same as what they have done for thousands of years. The methods are now much more humane. Do you really believe, as an outsider, that your opinion of the proper course of action, is worth disrupting a nations' cultural practices?

It is, admittedly, a sticky situation.

BTB, Oerlikon harpoon cannon use a shaped grenade-tip, which instantly kills whales, even if the harpoon strike is itself non-fatal. This is, to me, more humane than what happens to pork and some beef at the abattoir.

Answer 4

I think it's time we drop the economic hammer on Japan and boycott them across the board!

There is even a neat website (see link below) called "Boycott Japan" that has some detailed and interesting information on how to boycott products from Japan and get the anti-whaling message to these people.

I'm not an advocate of anyone going to extreme measures to enforce (no matter how right, just and humane) an act on another society.

In this case though I'm sick of the arrogance and disregard Japan displays to the world (be it historical revisionism in the atrocities they committed in WWII or whaling) that I think heavy handed measures should be taken.

I'd be thrilled to see the world's navies intercept these whaling ships, order the crews off, haul them into ports and scrap them.

The stance that this is a "cultural" aspect of Japan's society is a joke. These are the same people that used s*x slaves for the army as late as WWII.

Answer 5

many are doing what they can to stop the japanese ships from killing more whales.. ill post a link to the ship Esperanza its a live web cam and new images get uploaded every 30 seconds as it makes its way across the oceans (greenpeace) from the web cam you can go into the ships crew weblog then go into whales and you should find the Esperanzas crew journey.. you can help them, they have set up letters to governments all you have to do is sign one and send it off, keep up with the crew, post messages to them.....

also we have the Robert Hunter ship docked here in melbourne which is due to leave on dec 1st. then it will meet up with the sea Shepard in the Antarctica and hopefully slow down the japanese..

our new government Kevin Rudd hopefully will stand up to them unlike John Howard who couldnt stand up for the Whaling industry....please pass this link around so more people can become involved........

the way the japanese slaughter these whales is dam right cruel, they are slaughtered and then remain alive for many hours, the waters turn blood red... and the young that are left behind call out for their mothers for countless days, last year just over 500 pregnant whales were killed........

Answer 6

With the Japanese, It is hard to differentiate between Scientific research and profit. It seems that they make a profit by doing "so called" scientific research. We can't stop them from hunting in International waters though their vessel could be seized if they enter Australian waters. John Howard had no guts. Let's hope that Rudd makes it perfectly clear to them.

KEEP OUT.

EDIT. Benthic, perhaps you are the one that should do some research. It is not humane the way these animals are killed and never has been.