Outrage over Japan's plan to slaughter humpback whales

dadpad wrote-

Quote:

All of the products produced from whales have been adequately replaced. there is no need to hunt the macro species.

spendius wrote:

Don't the people who finance the hunting ships put their money down on the basis that this is untrue. It must cost a lot of money and if there is no need, as you assert, they must be going to lose the lot.

spendius

My understanding is that Japanese consumption of whale meat had declined considerably since the second world war. Recently there has been a strong marketing push to increase it, through advertising & the promotion of reintroduction of whale meat in school lunches (a big money spinner, apparently) as a means of profiting from the stockpiles gained through "scientific" whaling. I suppose that if the meat is promoted strongly enough, and is affordable compared to other meat, then the Japanese public will continue to buy it. Presumably the companies that profit from "scientific whaling" are making a profit from it. And are working on creating an even larger market to gain even more profits. There are, of course, alternatives to consumption of the flesh of endangered species. The point is, those promoting this practice and profiting from it, are doing it under the guise of "science".

A pity Bob hasn't maintained his rage.

He's a bit resigned now. "Everything is Broken" he reckons.

The writer goes on to suggests an alternative approach to "moral persuasion" to convince the Japanese to back down on whaling:

I cant see "moral persuasion" working. Trying that is tantamount to sentencing untold numbers of perfectly innocent whales to a violent and painful death.

"der grosse nordische WALFISH"


ms olga :
you wrote :
"The problem is that although whales are mammals, Japan defines whaling as a fisheries issue".
you make a very interesting point .
while in german a 'whale' is called a 'wal' , it used to be called 'walfisch' (see above pix) .
i would think that the reason for calling it a 'fisch' was , that fishermen (i'm using the term loosely ) were employed to go whale hunting .
just recently read an interesting book about the whaling business conducted out of new england (borrowed the book from the library and can't recall the title) . the book was the diary of a young scientist (about 1900) who went with a whaler to the south-georgia islands and recorded the scientific experiments and findings .
while the captain was a new-englander most of the sailors came from the caribbean , but the 'harpooneres' (?) came from the cape verde islands .


i just recall , that in the book it is stated that the most valuable part of the whale was not the meat or blubber but the 'amber' (used in the production of fine perfumes ; it has now largely been replaced by sythetics ).
could the japanese perhaps be making a tidy profit by selling of the amber ?
(it reminds me of the slaughter of the rhinos to make a highly prized powder out of their 'horn' for the asian market).
there seems to be a market for almost any 'crazy' product .
seahorses seem to be another species being caught in such huge quantities that they may become extinct
hbg

It is impossible to escape the conculsion that the International Whaling Commission was established to allow whaling, rather than to prevent it.

Setanta wrote:

It is impossible to escape the conculsion that the International Whaling Commission was established to allow whaling, rather than to prevent it.

.. & that it's a very corruptible organization!

Australia is leading the anti-whaling campaign

Is the motive moral or economic?

Ms Olga wrote-

Quote:

Australia is leading the anti-whaling campaign

Is the motive moral or economic?