Quote:Our study shows that humpback whales today actually have about 10 times more genetic variation than would be expected from the whaling logbook estimates. That tells us that, sometime in the past, the population of humpbacks was pretty big -- and in fact our calculation for the North Atlantic suggests that the historic size of that population was about 240,000 animals.
D'OH All this is saying is that theyve been significantly depleted from an original diversity that was much larger than expected. DIversity is an indication of how depleted a population is by genetic stock, not necessarily by individuals. Palumbi is a geneticist who has looked at diversity as an indicator of "bottlenecks and crashes" in paleo populations based upon genetic diversity today (AT least try to understand what the guiy is saying before clipping it). You wont find anyone with a lick of sense that is pro hunting HUMP BACKS. The humpback population is quite small in number now and they, like the Right, may be nearing a condition that is beyond repair or even sustainability (yet the Japanese announced that they would TAKE a few humpbacks as well). All sorts of populational insult is affecting whale populations and the "slow whale breeds " especially. northern Humpbacks are now in Fundy for their summer feeding, and there are a number of them that get whacked each year by ship propellers. This cuts into the population
Quote: "In light of our findings," Roman and Palumbi concluded, "current populations of humpback or fin whales are far from harvestable
AGAIN D"OH, Hows yer point upheld with this one? The fact that youre only interested in Minkes is immaterial to me. CJ's thread began with "WHALE RECIPES" not MINKE RECIPES. (CJ's not that bright).What part of that statement that Palumbi made dont you understand.? Ive already agreed (actually, Ive corrected your statement that there were only 110000 Minkes in the world, the number is about 10 times greater)> HOWEVER, harvesting a species to an ultimate threatened condition always begins with someone trying to justify an ancient practise that, by todays standards, isnt needed anymore. Subsistance hunting by Innuits is the only whaling that can be justified in good conscience, and just because Japan or Norway has a "taste for whale meat" isnt a reason to hunt them all to extinction.Theres no commercial chemical or other product that cant be made from other than whale feedstock.
If your entire point was just to try to sound intelligent, Ill give you that you have the sense to look up facts on Google and youve enlightened us (well youve actually not done your case any good by a few of your quotes but at least youre creating a storehouse of facts)If youre comfortable sitting in your house , trying to sound like an authority on whaling, contact your local office of GREENPEACE or THE SEA SHEPHERDS. I understand that were militanly t anti-whaling, but in about a few centuries, your great grandchildren will thank them for being a bunch of militant conservationists that protected whales from extinction
One of the roads to extinction is the seemingly benign advocacy of a horribly archaic practice that is "justified" by facts and figures mostly provided by the whale industry .
itself. Justifying the killing of Minkes by the euphemysm of "research" is sheer baloney that youve bought into. Most of the planet had originally signed onto a whaling moratorium. A few countries, based on dietary choices alone, have decided to try to undue the treaty and are busy lobbying non whaling members of the IWC to vote against the moratorium.
