Whales could be extinct within decades
Posted on 07/02/2008 10:49:43 AM PDT by yankeedame
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:57 PM on 02nd July 2008
The steeply declining number of whales in the world's oceans is causing the remaining creatures to suffer loneliness and 'lose the will the live', a leading expert has claimed.
The psychological impact of over-hunting on the highly intelligent and sociable animals has been identified as the latest threat to the survival of the species.
The whale population has already fallen dramatically over the past few centuries because to culling by Japan, Norway and Iceland, and the poisoning of oceans which kills off their food.
Whales could be extinct within decades
But now a French scientist has said the majestic mammals - which can reach 80ft in length and weigh the same as a passenger jet - could also suffer from heartbreak.
Paris naturalist Yves Paccalet said: 'It may be that these intelligent animals are so exhausted from their combat with humankind that they have simply have given up the fight.
'And the psychological consequences of our aggression have compromised their will to live.' ....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I thought this was a joke, but these people are serious. Sigh... I’m speechless.
Sounds like someone needs a big HUG? These ladies will oblige...........
I saw that—I think David Attenborough was narrating the program. It was sad. It took hours—6 or more I think for them to finally do the whale in and then they only ate a little bit of it. It was a very good documentary.
I didn’t think there was anything that a whale can provide that we don’t have a substitute for now days.
What a shame.
I shoot my blackpowder guns - Hawken, Enfield Model 1858,and Thompson Center quite well with modern lubricant and crisco, but I guess back then it was the best. I know they also valued bear grease. At least you could make bacon from the bear and take it yourself with a gun.
OK ZULO, I’ll take issue with your statement.
Just because millions of people live in cities & drive to the store to buy food raised and killed by someone else, does not mean that all people live that way and should not be forced to. The Eskimo and Alaskan native population as well as the Russian coastal populations were there LONG before a safeway was ever built in your city and they NEED these whales as their livelihood and food. They can not travel thousands of miles to a store. There are hundreds of thousands of people who still live off the land. Hunting whales is not just to slaughter them for sport. They use every square inch, from stomach to bone for clothing, tools, shelter and food.
Stop living in your city-dwelling bubble of thinking and stop dictating to subsistence populations how they should live.
Without God, there would be nothing. I always find it easier to see the fingerprints of God in nature instead of a city.
So do I
I was watching the show Dead Men Talking a few months ago. They had a case where this guy had some kind of white bird—Cockatoo maybe and they were really close. Well the guy got brutally murdered. The bird actually attacked the attacker. The bird was killed too, but he had enough of the murderer’s DNA on him that they were able to get the guy.
This sounds sort of like the newspaper story that Rush likes to quote from time to time about the sad cows.
I’ve read that female ferrets deteriorate if they don’t breed.
Personally, however, I prefer my whale in red wine sauce...
“The Eskimo and Alaskan native population as well as the Russian coastal populations were there LONG before a safeway was ever built in your city”
Agreed. But I don’t live in a city.
“and they NEED these whales as their livelihood and food.”
Sorry. I disagree. These people hunt whales as they consider it part of their culture. While the taking of whales in this fashion is far less damaging than by commercial whalers, its time for them to change their culture. Go back far enough and my ancestors in Europe took heads as trophies, and as much as the idea intrigues me when dealing with liberals, times change as people change. I never head of an Innuit who starved to death recently because he couldn’t harvest a whale.
“They can not travel thousands of miles to a store.”
??????????
So what? Again, I never heard of whales being a necessary ingredient today in the survival of any aboriginal people. Let them eat carabou or walrus or seal.
” There are hundreds of thousands of people who still live off the land. “
Yes. So do I. But I do because I like it, not because I’ll starve to death if I can’t get it.
“Hunting whales is not just to slaughter them for sport. They use every square inch, from stomach to bone for clothing, tools, shelter and food.”
I think you are conflating the past with the present.
“Stop living in your city-dwelling bubble of thinking and stop dictating to subsistence populations how they should live.”
I’ll remember that in the fall when I take my next buck.
I agree!
www.hvalbiff.no
Is the working link for the Norwegian Whale Meat Association
Site is in Norwegian but has some self-explanatory photos of various whale recipies...whale con carne, whaleburger, etc.
“I never head of an Innuit who starved to death recently because he couldn’t harvest a whale.”
You clearly know nothing about living in extreme northern parts of the globe. There is a tiny season for whaling and the other game you spoke of is not plentiful. If all the meat and other supplies obtained from whale were replaced by killing seal, the eco system would be seriously affected as in polar bears starving. As I said, stop dictating how “other” people should change their culture and leave them alone.
As for the buck you’ll get next season, try to feed an entire village on it.
They do interference, mainly positioning themselves in their tiny boats between the whalers and the whales. The Japanese whaling activities are violent and dishonest — just blatant lies about claiming it’s for “research”, while simultaneously claiming to be members of the IWC and to be abiding by its rules. I’d have no problem with activists engaging in property damage to obstruct the whalers.
I got's to differ with you there....
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