Japan and Whaling

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by notyoueither
1 of 1000. I'm sure the species is doomed.

When you get down to such tiny population bottlenecks killing just one could indeed make the difference between viability and extinction if that one individual carried genes with poor representation in the rest of the population. With such a tiny population genetic diversity becomes the most critical concern for long term surivival.

Species at less than 1000 individuals are like patients on ecmo in the icu.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Herra Gautason
You are twisting his words good sir Ralph.

No I am not.

And I can read your signature, but I can't speak Icelandic, so it is probably wrong.

[ískallin]

Actually I was talking about fishing in general not just whaling...

Anyhow fishing is not going to go away as it is one of the most important source of food in the world. (Don't know excact numbers though)


As for buying something from Iceland I would recommend Sigur Rós (a post modern/psyadelic rock/indie) band which is quite good. And please do stay away from Bjork which is probably the least fun clown in the history of the nation.

Here is their web site where you can listen to free songs and stuff...

I for one have had enough arguing about fishes and whales...

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Herra Gautason


So you are saying that they have no right to hunt a marine specie who isn´t endangered and actually damages the cod and loðna (No idea of the englis word for this fish) stocks wich they make their living of fishing? Maybe I misunderstood you?

The whales aren't damaging the cod. Humans are. If we want cod to return, we have to stop fishing them. If together, the whales and the humans are taking too much cod, since we aren't the antural preditors of cod, we're the ones who should stop.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by ískallin
Anyhow fishing is not going to go away as it is one of the most important source of food in the world. (Don't know excact numbers though)

Actually, fishing is very likely to go away, since almost every food fish has been overfished. Some fisheries will probably never recover. Fish farming is how future generations will get their fish.

[Jon Miller]

I personally consider how we treat our aquatic resources to be more dangerous in the long term and short term then global warming..

JM

[Nugog]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I personally consider how we treat our aquatic resources to be more dangerous in the long term and short term then global warming..

JM

By it's very nature, every time we remove a species from the food chain we court disaster

[Harovan]

Originally posted by ískallin
Actually I was talking about fishing in general not just whaling...

Well great then. I don't have anything against fishermen. They can fish all they want. Let them ****ing whalers then change their profession.

[Herra Gautason]

And I can read your signature, but I can't speak Icelandic, so it is probably wrong.

What if I told you it read: I have a sickly need for banana pie?

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Herra Gautason
What if I told you it read: I have a sickly need for banana pie?

I would call you a liar.

I see you prolongued it slightly. I may try to decipher it tomorrow, for today I'm too tired.

[Herra Gautason]

The whales aren't damaging the cod. Humans are. If we want cod to return, we have to stop fishing them. If together, the whales and the humans are taking too much cod, since we aren't the antural preditors of cod, we're the ones who should stop.

We should stop? And let the whales take the jobs? Really, that´s simply weird. This is like saying: It is not in the human nature to fly airplanes; stop flying now! Maybe I misread you post.

Mind you, I´m not saying that we should overfish cod. And neither should whales be overfished. As I have already said the Mink whale does eat food from cods and they eat a whole lot of loðna. 23% of their food is loðna and according to Hafro.is that is around 230 000 tonns of it. The percentage of cod they eat is only 6% percent, but they eat food from the cod.

But I must tell you that the scientists don´t know the exact effects the mink whale has on the stocks of fish. That´s the reason for the scientific whalings. The evaluation of the Mink whale influence on its environment. But it is an established fact that the fishing of 300-400 whales won´t damage the stock at all.

Anyway, it is clear that I disagree with many people here that aren´t going to change their minds so maybe this is a completely useless post.

[Herra Gautason]

I would call you a liar.

You see right through me. Shocked I am.

I see you prolongued it slightly. I may try to decipher it tomorrow, for today I'm too tired.

Do it now!

[Tingkai]

Even if the whales eat cod, killing a small portion of the whales would have no significant effect on the cod stocks. The only way to get a signficant effect is to kill lots of whales.

Since whale hunting will not benefit the cod fisheries, then it is best to leave them alone, particularly when we don't know how many whales are out there.

As for the idea that we need to keep jobs for the poor fishermen, that's what the Canadian fishing industry said when the government tried to reduce the limits on fishing. The fishing industry screamed that the poor fishermen would be left out of work and unemployable, and that the cod stocks were healthy.

Well, the fishermen destroyed the cod stocks and now they are all out of work.

Instead of having no fish and no jobs, it would be better to have some fish and no jobs.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Herra Gautason
We should stop?

If the fish stocks are depleting faster than they can recover, yes.

And let the whales take the jobs?

Whales aren't taking the jobs. That' a red herring. HUmans are over fishing, regardless of whether or not the whales are taking fish. The fish evolved with whales eating them, and are "designed" to take that into account. What they aren't not "designed" to handle are fleets of ships sweeping them out of the sea.

If you get rid of the whales, you will still run out of fish, except you'll have no fish and no whales. And then you'll still have no jobs. The jobs are going no matter what. The only question is, will there be anything for their decendents to fish or not.

[Herra Gautason]

This is just going in circles, I tire of all this fish talk.