Outrage over Japan's plan to slaughter humpback whales

What?

So that you can waft your moral superiority over the rest of us with a load of sentimental flannel that a five year old could see through.Give you a clear run, so to speak, on the credulous.

fm wrote-



Not at all fm. If you had followed my contributions to this thread, which any well mannered person would do before blurting bullshit out, you will see that the point you make, such as it is, has been comprehensively dealt with.

Although it is true in the very long run I will admit.

spendi

So, what is it that you are saying. Its "not at all" that Im right? or not at all that you are merely arguing with yourself? Ill assume that you were happily
, entirely, and symmetrically drunk when you posted that last one, it makes
little sense unless ones axial traces were spinning erratically.

fm wrote-



A state most desireably to be wished for.

If HB whales had a free run wouldn't they get like brambles in an untended fertile area and then clog up all the harbours and beaches and then the tankers couldn't get in and the seaside became known for its foul stench.

Would you be in favour of culling the sods if the Dow started plunging as a result and if you would be you havn't got a moral or ethical leg to stand on and if you think otherwise you will be shoved to one side like they do with snow generally.

Of course,I'll allow that you make take a contrarian view and I would admire such a principled stance with awe and wonderment.

A matter of common sense.

Humans overfish, infringe on wildlife habitat, build shopping malls on wetlands, bridges to nowhere, and now propose roads through our national parks.

Humans are the culprit - not an 'abundance' of whales.

Wildlife, left to their own devises, and not severly hunted to extinction, will survive naturally.

Stradee, Sounds like a-political common sense without the emotional baggage. Humans continue to kill each other by the thousands; where's the advocate for them?

spendi, whales have been pretty much in a standard body style and paint chip selection since the Oligocene. Thats about 26 million years (next Tuesday) since the Rupelian cetacean explosion :wink: .
They hadnt oerpopulated themselves at any known point in the recent arc of time. So why now? when were more indanger of making them extinct?
As more and more ships employ these reverse propped "Z drives" , I imagine were gonna be slicing up whales more frequently without hunting them to death.
As Bob Dylan said "I dont remember eatin that"

Human Rights advocates, c.i.

Problem is - nobody's listening and there's money to be made from the exploitation of humans, non-human animals, and the enviornment.

Not a war or argument begun without some sort of deception. Humans need get their priorites straight for the good of all people and all life - not for just the select few.

Human Rights advocates doesn't seem to be very effective. I'm not sure why, but human abuse in many forms are too frequent and common all around the globe.

From the killings and starvations in Africa, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the related abuse of prisoners and the killings of innocents, violence in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and the non-democracy in Israel where Palestinians are treated as second class citizens.

The UN and other human rights organizations seem impostent.

c.i., i have no idea why there's an escalation of violence throughout the world, except to say - the powers that be are out of balance themselves.

Peacekeeping demands taking into account the rights of the people. When basic human rights violations become the norm, and leaders become tyrants, there's no place for victims voices. Violence ensues.

What is the difference btwn politicians condoning human rights violations, and the murder of thousands of innocent people in Africa, Afghanistan, and Iraq, Palestine, etc. There isn't any.

Advocates face hypocracy on a daily bases.

c.i., i have no idea why there's an escalation of violence throughout the world, except to say - the powers that be are out of balance themselves.

Peacekeeping demands taking into account the rights of the people. When basic human rights violations become the norm, and leaders become tyrants, there's no place for victims voices. Violence ensues.

What is the difference btwn politicians condoning human rights violations, and the murder of thousands of innocent people in Africa, Afghanistan, and Iraq, Palestine, etc. There isn't any.

Advocates face hypocracy on a daily bases.

oh for crying out loud - whale over-population? Are you serious?

Stradee is right - if we let wildlife manage themselves, we'd not have to even worry about deer overpopulation.

I find dead animals on my property every year, especially deer. I also see a ton of roadkill. Those animals could have been a meal, or a coat, instead of a potentially dangerous waste.

so, do you give them all proper Christian burials. (Im not presuming that all the roadkill were Lutherans either)

Norway's whale catch falls short
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website



Norway's fleet will harpoon just half of its quota this year
Norway's whaling fleet will catch only half of its quota this season.

The government set a quota of 1052 minke whales, but so far only 444 have been landed.

Industry spokesmen predict the final tally for the April to August season will be about 500, and say bad weather earlier in the year prevented hunting.

Western environmental groups say the industry is in crisis, with stores full of unsold meat and a lack of demand from the Norwegian public.

"Norway has some real headaches this summer," said Sue Fisher from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

"It dramatically increased its whaling quota this year to make a political statement, but that is backfiring now.

"Middlemen can't sell the meat already caught and have run out of storage space."

If you don't have meat in May it's not possible to sell the meat you do have in July

Hermod Larsen
The government increased its quota to 1052 whales from 797 last year.

Commercial whaling is banned globally, but Norway lodged a formal objection when the moratorium was established 20 years ago and continues its commercial hunt, based around the Lofoten Islands in the country's north-west.

Bad breaks

Norwegian sources paint a different picture of the reasons for the low catch, which has seen parts of the fleet suspend operations in recent weeks.

"It's been very slow this year, that's for sure," said Rune Frovik, secretary of the High North Alliance which represents whalers, fishermen and sealers in northern countries.

"One reason is the bad weather - it's been rainy and windy and cold, and this June we had less sunshine than in any June for many years," he told the BBC News website.




Guide to whale species
"And then there hasn't been much capelin along the coast - this is a favoured prey for minke, so when that fish is not there the minkes go elsewhere."

The other factor, he said, is holidays, with many whalers and people involved in the processing industry taking several weeks off in July and August.

Hermod Larsen, regional director of the Norwegian Raw Fish Organisation for the Lofoten area, agreed that bad weather in May and June was a key factor.

"As the season goes on, the quality of the whalemeat goes down," he told the BBC News website.

"From mid-summer on they eat a lot of herring and other fish, they are eating and eating and getting fatter and fatter, and the fat is not good for the meat.

"Usually people start eating whale in May, they grill it and eat it; but if you don't have meat in May it's not possible to sell the meat you do have in July."

His organisation, which represents processing companies, has stopped buying whalemeat. Some whalers process their own meat, and according to Mr Frovik, this activity continues.

"Also, it appears that the three main processing plants wish to resume processing and buying whale meat after the holiday, more exactly on Monday 7th August," he said.

Mr Frovik and Mr Larsen both expect the final catch to be in the region of 500 whales.

International pressure

THE LEGALITIES OF WHALING
Objection - A country formally objects to the IWC moratorium, declaring itself exempt
Scientific - A nation issues unilateral 'scientific permits'; any IWC member can do this
Aboriginal - IWC grants permits to indigenous groups for subsistence food
Norway is one of three countries to hunt the "great whales"; the others are Japan and Iceland, which claim their catches are for "scientific research".

In June these pro-whaling nations saw a motion passed at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meeting calling for the eventual resumption of commercial hunting - the first pro-whaling resolution in 20 years.

Concerned by such moves, anti-whaling nations along with conservation and animal rights groups are stepping up pressure to have all whaling stopped.

Earlier this year a group of 12 countries sent a letter of diplomatic protest to Norway, while a similar letter to Japan was supported by 17 nations.

Communities in Norway, Japan and Iceland accuse these countries of trying to impose their own cultural values on societies which do not view whales as special creatures.

But conservation groups say that whaling is intrinsically cruel, stocks are too low for hunting to be sustainable, and demand for whalemeat is declining.

The current Norwegian situation, they say, is evidence for their case.

[email protected]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5175970.stm

From the United States: the NRDC brought suit against the Navy's claim that sonar blasting was necessary for training exercises. Judge Coopers ruling:

The judge prohibited the Navy from going forward with its sonar use as planned and ordered the Navy to sit down with NRDC and decide on a set of protective measures to be put in place during the month-long exercise. In the settlement reached last Friday after days of tough negotiation with our attorneys, the Navy will be required to create a sonar-free buffer zone around the newly established Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, as well as significantly improve its monitoring of marine mammals during sonar drills and implement other important safeguards.

Onward and upward advocates!!

In other words, let's put our brave seamen and women at extreme risk in order to not confuse some whales.

Great thinking Stradee. Keep up the good work.

Full report

COURT UPHOLDS STRICT LIMITS ON DEADLY SONAR
A federal appeals court has rejected the Bush administration's attempt to turn back a landmark NRDC courtroom win that limits the peacetime deployment of a powerful low-frequency active sonar system. According to the Navy's own studies, the LFA sonar system generates noise so intense that dangerous levels of sound travel more than 300 miles -- posing a deadly threat to whole populations of whales and other marine mammals that depend on their hearing to survive. Three years ago, a lower federal court sided with NRDC and our partners and ruled that the Navy's plan to deploy this powerful new sonar system across 75 percent of the world's oceans violated a host of federal laws. In the wake of the appeal court's decision, the Navy must continue to adhere to an agreement with NRDC, which limits LFA testing and training to an area in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

Of course this doesn't apply to Russia though, or other nations with navies.

The NDRC shoudn't even be allowed in a court of law. Their anti-American bias is clear.

Yet another acronym that really stands for "It's all Bush's Fault".

If you don't believe me, check out the NDRC's website.

It took some time until he noticed the new responses