Germany - Dead whale left outside embassy

BBC News ^ | January 19, 2006

[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.

[Squeako]

That's hilarious video! At first, I thought your link was to the one with the whale on the flatbed trailer in Taiwan when it burst and launched guts all over the street. Too bad for this guy's scooter!

[IamConservative]

Ted Kennedy went to Germany?

My first thought: "Anyone seen Ted since last week?" :)

[tcostell]

In order to credit their point of view I have to have some respect for it. Personally I have a big problem with respecting the point of view of someone who is basing their policy arguments on emotion rather than fact.

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.

[Smokin' Joe]

If you had a couple of them chained to you, you'd be pretty close...LOL!

[FostersExport]

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.

[Calico Cat]

"Thank you, Japan. We'll miss you...and your sparkling, whale-free seas!" (Bart Simpson)

[Smokin' Joe]

You might disagree with them but their argument makes sense (from their point of view).

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.

[djf]

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.

[psychoknk]

How clever.

[IamConservative]

I am torn by the difference between John, Bobby and Ted.

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.

[Jaysun]

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.

I see your point. But it isn't just the whale. I don't understand why these communist bastards and their pals are allowed to raise hell all over the world.

Nobody else does the kind of things they do.

I disagree with a lot of things but you don't see me dragging Lenin's corpse to the DNC, or chaining myself to a monument of the Ten Commandments, or splashing vegan lesbians with vegetable soup, or setting fire to hemp farms in Canada. I loathe these stupid bastards and relish the day I happen upon one of their "demonstrations" in person.

[Jaysun]

If you had a couple of them chained to you, you'd be pretty close...LOL!

Good point. But not for long.......although I guess having two corpses chained to yourself wouldn't be a picnic either.

[Fierce Allegiance]

Have a nice day!

[Smokin' Joe]

Eventually, they would 'drop out'....

[Oztrich Boy]

You might disagree with them but their argument makes sense (from their point of view).

Because whales die acceidently, they shouldn't be killed.

Captain Logic not steering that boat.

[djf]

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.

[Dick Vomer]

Did something happen to Ted Kennedy???

[Rebelbase]

"Bones, you and Scotty work on finding some transparant aluminum, Chekov, you and Ohura find the nuclear wessels. Spock and I are going to find the whales and drop some LDS. Once we're in orbit we'll photon torpedo Japan for causing this mess."

[Clock King]

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.

[voletti]

Notwithstanding the anti-enviro whacko sentiment (which I share on most "green" issues), the whaling thing is different. Whales are pretty much sentient creatures, on par if not higher than dolphins even. Hunting them somehow turns my stomach.

Besides, many schools of whales totally disappear part of the year. Scientists have no clue where they go. Breeding and harvesting them may not be as straightfwd as some here suggest.