Posted on 01/19/2006 3:04:48 AM PST by HAL9000
A huge beached whale has been dumped outside the Japanese embassy in Berlin. in a Greenpeace anti-whaling protest.The controversial environmental activists hauled the fin whale to Berlin from the Baltic coast after finding it beached on a sandbank.
The dead whale measured 17 metres (56 ft) long and weighed 20 tons.
Activists are trying to demonstrate that there is no need to kill the mammals for research - as Japan does - because cadavers can be found.
Japan is expected to kill 935 minke whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary during the first four months of 2006.
The International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986, but Japan resumed whale hunting the following year.
Critics dispute Japan's claim to be whaling for scientific purposes, saying whale meat often ends up on restaurant tables.
A Greenpeace banner in Berlin read: "Science doesn't need harpoons! Stop the senseless whaling!"
The fin whale in Berlin - between 10 and 20 years old - is believed to have got lost in the Baltic while looking for herring. Its normal habitat is the North Atlantic.
The whale is due to be taken to Stralsund on the coast for scientific examination after the Greenpeace protest.
So killing a whale for research and food is bad, but using a dead whale to make a political statement is good?
Agreed. The convoluted "logic" of watermelons is amazing.
Saw photos of Japaneese whaling boats killing whales the other day.
Japs should be ashamed as many of these whales have more brains then many Japaneese.
Excuse me? It’s not twisted logic at all. The protestors didn’t kill the whale they used, which is their point. You might disagree with them but their argument makes sense (from their point of view).
That is a lovely opinion for you to have.
Ted Kennedy went to Germany? My condolences to his family.
Way to attack the poster but not his argument.
How is that any kind of an attack? WTF? If anything, his initial post to me is an attack on my argument. Nice friggin convoluted logic, or complete and utter lack thereof.
Have a nice day!
Nope. Couldn't be Kennedy. He is of the species orcinus orca, commonly known as a killer whale. The whale in the article is too big to be an orca.
LOL - That's a classic, and certainly belongs on the thread.
The Germans should haul them into court for creating a 20 ton public health problem.
If anything, his initial post to me is an attack on my argument.
As it should be. Nice reading comprehension. Basically, you tried to invalidate the post and the author of it rather than discuss the logic of the statement. To respond to your initial statement:
So killing a whale for research and food is bad, but using a dead whale to make a political statement is good?
Basically, yes. The activists are opposed to killing whales. They don't care what happens to a whale once it is dead. Their point, if you read the article, is "that there is no need to kill the mammals for research - as Japan does - because cadavers can be found." They also "dispute Japan's claim to be whaling for scientific purposes, saying whale meat often ends up on restaurant tables." I have read a bit about the issue, and it seems like Japanese are using dubious research to justify whale hunting.
I really hate "environmental activists" and those like them. I'd gladly go to hell if I were assured that a couple of them would be chained to me.
That is a lovely opinion for you to have.
Besides, he already proved he can float, at Chappaquidick...
yep, but the real question is how do you just drop this big a thing on a doorstep at an embassy? dont embassies have video cameras? nobody noticed this whale riding on the back of a very large truck? again, unloading this behemoth took some time, but nobody saw this? ah well, i suspect lots of people are blind.
My first thought: "Anyone seen Ted since last week?" :)
They are entitled to their opinion, and I am entitled to think them fools for holding it.
What has happened to the world that we no longer try to differentiate between good ideas and bad, sound logic and foolishness, reason and emotion? The greenpeace people are a minority of fools who believe themselves more enlightened than we unwashed masses, and therefore deem themselves the only ones worthy of setting a policy.
Nonsense.
If you had a couple of them chained to you, you'd be pretty close...LOL!
Hey, I certainly don’t agree with everything Greenpeace have to say. I was just pointing out their demonstration did not invalidate the point they were making. I don’t get passionate about saving the whale. But are the Japanese hunting them for scientific research? Of course not.
"Thank you, Japan. We'll miss you...and your sparkling, whale-free seas!" (Bart Simpson)
Yep. I disagree with them. Many things make "sense" to them from their point of view which won't hold water in the real world.
Without getting gushy over cetaceans because they breathe air, the fact remains that populations of cetaceans, like any other animal, can be harvested and conserved, and studied in the process to keep the herd healthy. No different from hunting deer or rabbits, or whatever.
As for the meat ending up in restaurants, I should hope so. It is a way to fund the research, and keeps the meat from going to rot. That would be a waste, which I find abhorrent.
I am torn by the difference between John, Bobby and Ted.
I was alive when John was elected, and when he was assasinated.
No matter what happened in their pants, I still think they were honorable men.
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
We need challenges like that. Not just challenges that "I'm gonna kill anybody that gets in my face"
The cold war is over. Now, we must do what is right.
How clever.
I wondered myself as I watcehd last week. I think what you see in Ted is man that has sold out. He traded every shred of dignity and principle to those that could and do give him power. I have wondered to if he is not still beholden to those who helped him walk away from a capital offense. Either way, he is sold out.
Have a nice day!
Eventually, they would 'drop out'....
Because whales die acceidently, they shouldn't be killed.
Captain Logic not steering that boat.
Precisely. I watched John on tv during the Cuban Missile crisis. I remember my mom crying out "Oh no, not again" during the 68 Democratic convention.
I hate the whole "I'm a pubbie so you are sludge" mentality. Or vice versa.
Did something happen to Ted Kennedy???
I lothe enviros, but Japan does NOT kill the whales for research. 100% of the meat ends up in the fish markets. So much for Asian "honor" and "saving face". They're liars, and if they want to hunt the whales for food, then say so, either do it, or farm them so they have a large future supply.
Haul it away. Track down the offenders and send them the bill for the cleanup. Then throw them all in jail for littering.
Scientific examination? What could be gained from studying Michael Moore's remains?
Have a link to any proof? I am not disagreeing, just want some proof.
LOL! What a great picture. Check out the guy's reaction standing next to the moped. I wonder if it's his bike?
"Because whales die acceidently, they shouldn't be killed."
Depends what you're killing them for. Research? I'd love to know what research their doing which requires the number of whales they kill. It's not like they're testing mass market products on the whales.
Food? Well then already-dead whales won't do. But supposedly food isn't the primary need.
I'll dig it up if I can (I know reports on this have been done in the past, where the whales after being "researched" showed up in the fish markets), but shear logic says you don't need to kill 935 whales per year to do research on the whales. BTW, what are they claiming to be researching anyway? Obviously, not the whales' migratory patterns or anatomy. New medicines made from the whales? So much for the so-called saving face.
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