I think they should allow Japan to resume commercial whaling

[jmowreader]

Before you flame me, here are the restrictions they'll have to operate under:

1) No hunting Sperm Whales.
2) No exporting whale products to any other country in any way, shape or form.
3) No government subsidies for the harvest.

The boats will never leave the docks.

[JonTheGreat]

1. I personaly don't have an issue with the whale hunt, much like the seal hunt.

Provided they impose more restrictions on them I say go for it.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JonTheGreat]

4. Meh, I don't care.

I've had seal before on a trip to Newfoundland. Good stuff.

[Bluebear]

8. .

[Oasis_]

7. Absolutely

Whales and seals shouldn't be hunted, period.

Oasis

[get the red out]

26. +1

I totally agree, nothing is going to change my opinion on that either.

[hyphenate]

14. My relatives live in Newfoundland

and my uncle is a fisherman. We talk about politics when he and my aunt are up visiting to Boston. They have told me that the main beef (if you pardon the expression) with the seals is they are competing with the humans for the fish supply, which is among the largest industry there. He has also told me--and I have not researched this--that they do not club baby seals to death like some of the organizations depict.

Like I said, I haven't really put any research into this personally, but I do understand about leaving several hundred fisherman out of work.

BTW, same uncle told me that when he went hunting once, he looked at the deer in the scope, and didn't have the heart to kill him. So people do learn. My mom told me of many times when even she went out trapping rabbits and selling them when she was a kid, so I guess reactions to hunting is largely about the way one is raised. I've been raised in an urban encironment, so I tend to forget that nature's face is usually on the dinnerplates of many around the world.

[Bluebear]

16. Thank you for all of that...

but the poster was just going for a reaction.

[joshcryer]

5. Bullshit, the seal hunt is indeginous tribes, in relatively small numbers.

Whaling is a whole nother matter entirely using higher technology and such.

[flvegan]

6. Ignorant. n/t

[joshcryer]

19. ???

[flvegan]

20. You think the seal hunt is just "indeginous tribes'

Maybe we're not seeing the same thing here.

[joshcryer]

29. I assumed that's what the poster was referring to (Inuit hunting).

Otherwise it is mind boggling that he'd compare the industrial, commercial, seal hunt to whaling.

edit: I do admit that was an ignorant assumption to make going by the other posts the poster has made.

[rawtribe]

10. I ate seal meat when was in

Longyearbyen in Svalbard. It was tasty. Should it be on the world market. NO.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

30. Some whaling is also done by indeginous tribes as well

[flvegan]

2. So you expect the whalers to operate under rules now, eh?

[jmowreader]

11. No, but I expect the government to

The Japanese whale fishery runs at a loss. If it's forced to be self-sustaining no one will do it.

[flvegan]

12. Whaling has run at a loss for what...a decade?

Yet, they still keep killing whales.

Sorry, financial logic failed here a long, long time ago.

[jmowreader]

15. Whaling is Japanese government-subsidized

I know YOU know this stuff, but lots of our number don't, so...

The Japanese are trying to be allowed to fish for whales commercially. That's what the "research" bullshit is all about--"researching" a possible commercial fishery. (Okay, this year they're going to be pulling a lot of glow-in-the-dark whales out of the ocean thanks to their purchase of nuclear power plant standby generators from the lowest bidder, so there's some possibility there will be a slight bit of science in this year's whale season.) My feeling is, if the whale fishery was forced to operate without government funding no one would do it.

[flvegan]

21. Okay.

I see your point. Well taken, and I agree with you.

[hyphenate]

9. They'd find a way

There was a specisl on Current tonight about hunting down the fish in Japan for sushi to near extinction. I didn't see it, but ot looked particularly gruesome.

I have reservations about such idiocy, because there are so many countries in this world who are doing exactly that. Once an animal is extinct, there is no second coming. I find that disturbing that it's going on by people who are supposed to be intelligent.

[jmowreader]

13. You're talking the bluefin tuna fishery...

and that fishery is at near extinction worldwide, partly because of the Japanese sushi trade but also because of the American sushi trade.

From what I've read, the biggest problem whalers have is whale meat is very similar to beef, which is not pleasing to the Japanese palate--it's too heavy.

[hyphenate]

34. I know that the Sea Shepard

group is trying very hard to catch the poachers going after the whales. I can only hope their hard work succeeds before most of the whales are gone forever.

[AndyTiedye]

17. They Have Proven They Will Not Honor any Restrictions Imposed On Them

The whaling they were doing was supposed to be for "research".
The "research" seemed to be mostly on how to get the Japanese people to eat whale meat.
They were whaling in sanctuaries that are supposed to be off-limits even for research whaling, because they are their breeding grounds.

[jmowreader]

24. The invisible hand of the market would fix that

There would have to be some sort of worthwhile sanction against the Japanese if their government funded the whale fishery.

But this is the thing: the only ways whaling is profitable are:

1) they fish for sperm whales; sperm whale spermaceti is a valuable item in the cosmetics trade. Look on the labels of things like Oil of Olay and you'll find "cetyl palmitate." This is a fat that is now extracted from Jojoba beans but was once extracted from sperm whale heads.

2) they cam sell the meat abroad: the Norwegians would probably buy all the whale meat they could lay hands on. Probably the Inuit in Alaska would take some. And, if given the chance, some Americans would eat it.

3) they're subsidized by the government.

Take away all three and the financial incentive for whaling disappears--and no one is going to go out in the middle of the ocean and try to fish for whales without any hope of profit; it's WAY too dangerous and it's also very expensive to do this.

[xchrom]

18. Some body hasn't done their homework.

There's no 'market' for whale meat - even in japan.

It's a fiction, a stupid & brutal fiction.

[AsahinaKimi]

22. A couple of my teachers grew up in Japan...

and remember Whale meat coming in a can. It was often served at schools as well. My Teacher told me that none of the students really enjoyed Whale meat. Many of the students didn't even know what they were being served. I have never had it, however.. even my father, who had been born and raised in Osaka said he hated it, that the flavor was way too strong, and the smell was not that much better. He told me he would rather eat Natto,(fermented soy bean) then Whale meat any day. Natto, unlike Whale meat, didn't make him gag.

[jmowreader]

23. Exactly. You catch on quick, grasshopper...

If the whalers were required to return a profit based on the sale of whale meat, they wouldn't go out.

[masmdu]

25. You are mistaken. You can go to nearly any supermarket in Japan and buy whale meat.

It is readily available.

[Warren Stupidity]

27. They primarily hunt minke whales not sperm whales.

And you cannot seriously claim that the vaunted rightwing deity: the invisible hand, is going to cure this problem and simultaneously impose state regulation on their hunt: that hand is pretty visible. The free market approach was tried up until 1986 and the result was a global crash of the entire whale population.

Whale meat is sold in japan - that is the only market for the japanese hunt.

[TheKentuckian]

28. I think their ships should be blown from the water.

[Nihil]

31. That works for me. (n/t)

:thumbsup:

[Maru Kitteh]

33. +1

[Javaman]

32. 4) they have to hunt them with their bare hands. nt