Posted on 07/21/2010 7:49:38 PM PDT by sinanju
"..But the larger question is: Why does anyone bother to hunt whales anymore? The economics of whale hunting are simply dismal. No whaling nation profits from it. Japan’s annual, much-criticized Antarctic hunt hasn’t involved private capital for years. As Leape notes: “Japan’s is a very small industry, employing less than 1,000 people, catching many more whales than they can sell. They try to promote it with school children and free-whale-meat days and it’s not catching on.”
In Norway, although government-subsidized coastal whalers have missed their annual quota nine times in the last decade, blubber stockpiles mount as consumers ignore state-backed ad campaigns for burgers, ham, and pastrami made of whale. The government cut off subsidies that paid for the whalers’ inspection program, leaving only an electronic system that the IWC deems unacceptable, according to “Sink or Swim: The Economics of Whaling today,” a 2009 study by the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society.
That came weeks after Iceland’s Ministry for Fisheries & Agriculture announced that a report it had commissioned from the University of Iceland’s Institute of Economic Studies (neither the institute nor the ministry have posted it) said that the economically devastated country could benefit from killing 300 whales annually. Conceding that direct whaling profits were not quantifiable, the study attributed most of the projected gain to $94 million in additional fish that it estimated would be caught if some whales were killed, according to Iceland Review online."
(Excerpt) Read more at thebigmoney.com ...
Different subject altogether. Aboriginal - IWC grants permits to indigenous groups for subsistence food. Example: Alaskan Inupiat. The Japanese on the other hand fish in Australian territorial waters. ustralia has outlawed ALL whaling in its territorial waters and the Japanese are in DIRECT VIOLATION of the Sovereign Laws of Australia
.
The whaling occurs in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, an internationally ordained preserve that covers the waters surrounding Antarctica as far north as 40º S and protects 11 of the planet’s 13 species of great whales. Research is permitted in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, commercial whaling is explicitly forbidden. Got that?
I thought that the Japanese were whale "research scientists" working for the non-profit ICR.
Ewww??!
I've tasted seal oil, and herring eggs, but not muktuk. My friend's hubby is an anthropology prof who researched all the cultures up here, and he says whale is pretty tasty. Really lean, really rich.
Probably because muktuk, seal oil, walrus, seal, blubber, whale, porcupine, fish, etc., are all the livestock Eskimos have. Not much opportunity in the Arctic for pig farms, cattle ranches, fruit orchards, or vegetable farms.
Whale oil is an exceedingly fine lubricant and is used by clockmakers/watchmakers and other fine mechanical users.
Then why does NASA use it on the HST?
“I can’t be sure, burp, but people want to eat cow meat.”
Sure, because you were raised on beef. Some people like whale meat. If they aren’t killing an endangered specicies what is the problem?
“Whales in international waters belong to everyone, and if we all killed as many as Japan there would be none left. “
Do you eat tune, cod, the dreaded white fish? Perhaps grouper, snapper, or flounder? Nobody else wants to kill whales so we aren’t going to kill as many as Japan.
“Japan has continually behaved in a sleazy manner about whaling and I for one vote for Paul Watson on this issue.”
You vote for someone who has committed piracy, used biological weapons against people, endangered peoples lives? All the while forsaking using the legal system.
My argument are that whales are sentient creatures and there is no economic need to kill them. It’s like hunting chimpanzees for “food”.
Totally different, deer are prey animals.
The production of ethanol from food stocks is beyond crime and more like sin. Conservatives need to make some sort of a federal case out of that one and at least try to get it to where motorists have some sort of a choice.
Cows are a domesticated prey animal. Whales are intelligent animals and very clearly not prey animals.
The difference between prey animals like deer and creatures like whales and other primates is simply not that hard to grasp. Deer, pigs, goats and the like were PUT here to provide food for humans and other predators; whales weren't.
‘Whales are intelligent animals and very clearly not prey animals.”
Whales are prey for some people.
‘Deer, pigs, goats and the like were PUT here to provide food for humans and other predators; whales weren’t. “
“PUT”? Who put them there and where does it differentiate between one animal and another?
Your post is absolute balderdash.....pure drivel through and through.
No facts and baseless opinion
Trust me, those whales they are catching on Whale Wars wind up on the Japanese dinner table, that’s what it’s all about. The Japanese would wipe the oceans clean if we let them. The are eating them, that is what it’s all about.
It was reported that the boaters were harrassing the whales and many were watching them, it’s not suprising the photo was taken, looks like the response was expected.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.