Is It Hump Day Already?

Japanese whaling fleet to hunt up to 1,035 whales, including 50 humpbacks

Posted at 6:50 AM on 19 Nov 2007

Japan's oft-criticized "scientific" whaling fleet will be extra busy this season as it aims to land up to 1,035 whales in what could be the country's largest whale hunt in modern times. Included in the toll: up to 50 humpback whales, the first time they've been targeted in some 40 years. Humpback whales numbered only about 1,200 in the 1960s, but the population has since increased to about 30,000 or 40,000 due largely to the international hunting ban. Environmentalists said of the whalers, "They're violent ... terrorists. Their violence is unforgivable ... We must fight against their hypocrisy and lies." No, wait. That was actually whale-hunt mission leader Hajime Ishikawa, talking about environmentalists. Greenpeace has vowed to try to disrupt the whale hunt, as has the more militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The whale hunt and the hunt for the whale hunters will both be conducted in the waters around Antarctica.

sources: Associated Press, The Guardian, Agence France-Presse
see also, in Grist: Japanese, Norwegians, and Icelanders spout off in favor of whaling

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Comments: (4 comments)

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If it were really scientific

If it were really scientific, then they shouldn't be allowed to sell it, or even give it away.

It should be mandatory that it's put into a waste dump.

Kill off it's economic value, and you kill off the hunting.

-David Ahlport

by GreyFlcn at 9:45 AM on 19 Nov 2007

Resuming Whale Hunting

The economics are the thing: whale factory ships are VERY single purpose, and would be so much scrap metal if whaling were totally banned.

So the answer is no ships, no new ships would be built, and the slaughter ends.

Anybody have a source for some Mark-48 homing torpedos? Just as a philosophical question, you understand...

by edarnold41 at 10:44 AM on 19 Nov 2007

I bet torpedos are unnecessary...

A little sugar in the gas tank would probably work.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 11:10 AM on 19 Nov 2007

"smiling whales" yet!

The AP reporter in Shimonoseki gives this detail about the fleet's send-off:

<<
Families waved little flags emblazoned with smiling whales and the crew raised a toast with cans of beer, while a brass band played "Popeye the Sailor Man."
>>

"Popeye the Sailor Man" is of course NOT a traditional Japanese whaling shanty. And that great American hero, famous for the bold and uncompromising motto, "I yam what I yam," would instruct children to tell the truth, no matter how bitter, and would forcefully urge parents to tell the truth to their children.

And the relevant truth here is, whales do not smile when they are being killed with harpoons.

And we would all do well to remember that this week, making the appropriate re-application of Popeye's sage advice, when we behold all those countless images of smiling turkeys.

Grey Falcon, we are on the same wavelength, regarding what should be done with the whales' remains.

Trying to find something to be hopeful about, however, I also observed in the last "This week in ocean news" thread that not impossibly, by the very fact that the whalers are this time targeting humpback whales, which are internationally well-known and popular, they may provoke a much greater and more serious condemnation from all quarters than before.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 12:02 PM on 19 Nov 2007

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