Outrage over Japan's plan to slaughter humpback whales

So letem move to Michigan or something equally as dum.

Huh?

Looks like some sort of terrorist to me, Stradee! (The chap with the weapon, I mean!) :wink:

600 school kids come pouring out of classrooms all chattering yelling screaming at the onset of freedom for another day. Running jumping red blue yellow flashes of color going every which way parents in suv's revving busses.

If I am a mountain lion........ I am getting the f out of there.

when cj begins to "take on water" he likes to switch the attention away from issues at hand. Discussing mountain lions and whales as an example of "nature gone wild" is inane . Eaxcept for "The Essex" I know of no other legends wherein a whale has knowingly attacked people . We just dont occupy the same niche. Now , big cats in the Rockies and in the Plains of Atosha, are being encroached by humanity. Animals dont know any better. They see prey or mates, and we arent either. So we take the means at hand to control their occupancy of our shared niche. We shoot em.

I dont think that we will ever be in danger of being "knee deep" in whales, and they, as a top predator , will be controlled in number by the availability of the resources.

The point is that humanitys use of whales as a resource is a thing of the past.
We dont need whale oil or blubber for any product that used to require it. We have chemistry to do that.

Whales serve no commercial purpose except for some sushi fans and subsistance food for a tiny population of Innuit.

Id like to see the Right whales and the Bowheads return to the BAt of Fundy in the numbers that used to be there in the days of the French Explorers. (This would also require us to change our ferry boats to Cat's and make changes in commercial shipping lanes in order to prevent hitting them.

Id like to see that.

As for mountain lions, sadly, theyre running out of room as long as people continue to build on the "flatirons" of the Rockies and occupy the"barancas" of California with their "extreme homes".

Palo Alto isn't in a baranca. It's in the heart of Silicon Valley. In order for the lion to get where he was, the figured he had to have somehow gotten under 280, or ran across it, came down the foothills and crossed the Stanford campus, then managed to cross El Camino Real (8 lanes), to get to the neighborhood he was in.

No danger to people whatsoever.

<sigh>

Yes.

And I wasn't taking on water. I'm guessing Stradee has never hunted, or had a bad experience. This is why I oppose putting hunting and firearm issues on a general ballot. While unfortunate, the fact is that a large majority of U.S. citizens have never hunted, never fished, or even been shown how to properly handle a firearm.

Now I will tell you exactly what this is the result of. Bad parenting. That's the simple truth. Those who have been exposed to the cycle of life have a great deal more respect for wildlife and for people than for those who have never experienced the outdoors as a providing source. Meat doesn't come from the store. You can choose to be a vegetarian but you aren't one by nature.

The mountains of Santa Cruz and the barancas surrounding , have been developed in the typical California model(pave it over then worry about consequences) so are you surprised that some wildlife has been displaced? Cmon, youre an outdoors guy. You understand habitat encroachment.

I firmly believe that the CAlifornia economy is disaster based anyway. The biggest indutries are building and repairing, So why not build over a couple of active faults and cut into the rock slope so that landslides are a seasonal event. So why worry about clashing with a few lions. Its not as if these eventualities ciouldnt be envisioned.

However, having said all that, what do mountain lions and whales have in common wrt this discussion? NOTHING, thats what. Youre just trying to dodge and parry.

No, I was addressing Stradee because of his location.

Here we go again!:

Tuesday, May 30, 2006. 12:41pm (AEST)

Australia gears up for whaling fight



Australia is seeking to secure votes ahead of the IWC meeting.

Australia is stepping up attempts to block Japan's bid to resume commercial whaling with Environment Minister Ian Campbell conducting a whistlestop tour of the Pacific.

Some Pacific nations have in the past backed Japan's pro-whaling stance after reportedly receiving generous financial aid from Tokyo.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in a fortnight to vote on the issue. ... <cont>

http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1650783.htm

I was under the impression they were not able to sell the last lot of whale meat they "researched".

From all the media reports (many here on this thread) I was under exactly the same impression, dadpad. Why they would now want to escalate the killing at this stage, well ... I can't quite figure out.

The shadow of slaughter hangs over whales
Guardian Unlimited/Observer.
11th June

In the next 10 days, Japan's long campaign to end the hunting moratorium could pay off. As offers of aid sway poorer nations to side with pro-whalers, conservationists fear the tide is turning.

......... Within the next 10 days the pro-whaling nations of Japan, Norway and Iceland are expected to win control of the International Whaling Commission meeting on the Caribbean island of St Kitts and begin wholesale changes to the regulatory body that could, in the near future, see Tsukiji's ageing stalls once again creak under an abundance of whale meat.

The three whaling nations, which continue to hunt limited numbers of whales in the name of 'scientific research', believe they are closer than ever to securing 51 per cent of the votes among the IWC's 69 members.

To scrap the IWC's 1986 ban on commercial whaling they would need a three-quarters majority - both sides agree that that is unlikely to happen in St Kitts - but even a slim majority would mark the death knell of a ban that environmentalists hail as one of their greatest achievements. ....

....... The future of the 20-year-old ban appears shakier than ever, despite its success in forcing pro-whaling nations to largely leave whales alone to recover after hundreds of years of hunting that took them to the brink of extinction. Between 1904 and 1986 about 2 million whales were killed in the southern hemisphere alone. By the early 1980s, unregulated whaling had reduced the number of humpback and grey whales by an estimated 98 per cent. ............

..... But if Japan and its allies win a majority in St Kitts they will have the mandate they need to use the way the IWC operates to their advantage. Campaigners fear their first step would be to end the observer status of Greenpeace and other environmental groups. The pro-whalers would also be able to abolish the commission's conservation committee and introduce secret ballots, allowing smaller countries to vote with Japan without fear of upsetting aid donors such as the US.

Last year Japan came tantalisingly close to achieving a majority, only to be let down by poorer member countries that either failed to turn up at the meeting in South Korea or were barred from voting because they had not paid their fees.

Tokyo has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent a repeat of the debacle. Last month the foreign ministry convened a secret meeting of pro-whaling countries to discuss tactics ahead of the IWC meeting. An official in the ministry's whaling division denied that aid packages had been discussed, but conceded that the parties had agreed on 'logistics' to ensure that poorer Pacific and African nations made the journey to St Kitts. ..

<complete article>
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1794987,00.html

Well, weve been armed with a number of Japanese affiliate names that have markets in the US. Eg Gortons, Fujyama, Mi Kasa, etc are large and small chains of restaurants and seafood sales companies that are JApanese owned. I plan to get organized and have printed up stickers that can be applied to Gortons or Mi kasa's products that Japan supports whaling .

Im sure if we think this through, we can exert sufficient market pressure on a number of JApanese products .

fm wrote-



I do believe,using Darwinian logic, that if the humpback whale can't cut the mustard it really ought to be prepared to become extinct. Isn't it supposed to develop a thick skin like armadildoes have done?

What about "road kill" fm?

What's so special about humpback whales? They must eat a lot of stuff to get that big. Is any of that alive.?

SAVE THE PLANKTON!!!! (Plankton is absolute shite at making pretty patterns on the plasma screens and the lower middle class refuse to watch programmes about it because it is so common and because it is content to just drift about in the currents.

Is that a fault?

Does plankton deserve to be swallowed a million a gulp just because fewking humpback whales want to get fat so they can make a big spash for the cameras.

As I stated on the other thread, I do hope that you will let me know when your self-proclaimed wit kicks in.

It is not socially acceptable to do that.

Wit is detected not drawn attention to.

fm wrote-



Now I know why people complain about the government all the time.