Japan and Whaling

[notyoueither]

Why should it be bad to hunt a species to extinction?

[Winston]

We may have to call in an American Indian to answer that.

[notyoueither]

For you. Why do you feel species should be protected from extinction?

[Tattila the Hun]

They should not be.

Mind you, I lump the Homo Sapiens there too.

[Winston]

It would hurt the zoo business in the long run.

No, each species fills a place in one or more eco-systems, and the abrupt extinction of a species caused by excessive hunting or other human actions is undesirable because of its (known or unknown) impact on other species, and overall biodiversity.

Natural extinction, while much more rare than that caused by humans, is another matter.

But the point remains, if a species is viable and sustainable in numbers, and there's an economic incentive to exploit it, we shouldn't let sentimental hippies decide whether it's too "intelligent" to make a stew out of.

[RGBVideo]

No not the whales!

If a whale species is not under threat of extinction, go ahead and eat 'em. Sometimes I really think certain over-emotional people with nothing better to do get more worked up over whales being hunted than if it were, say, windsurfers or balloonists.

They are.

Ever heard of a gray whale?

Two Pacific Ocean populations of Gray Whales exist: one small population travelling between the Sea of Okhotsk and southern Korea, and a larger one travelling between the waters off Alaska and the Baja California. A third, North Atlantic, population was hunted to extinction 300 years ago. [..] As of 2004, the population of Western Pacific (seas near Korea, Japan, and Kamchatka) Gray Whales was an estimated 101 individuals.

Cows are higher life forms too. They're even milkable life forms! Yet we don't hear any whining when we munch on them.

Yeah, unrestricted whale-hunting on international waters which nobody really owns is exactly like farmers raising cattle on their barbe-wired ranches, what an accurate comparison! No need for international agreements and big punishments here, the whalers themselves can surely be trusted to regulate themselves. I mean it'd be impossible for humans to just accidentally hunt any species to extinction and thus **** over the whole ecosystem of the Pacific Ocean in ways which we aren't even aware of yet, right?

[Winston]

Jeez, the comparison was on what constitutes a "higher life form". I've made exceptions for endangered species all along, VJ. Learn how to read, and if you want to be considered a higher life form, no moving your lips!

[RGBVideo]

Learn how to read

if you want to be considered a higher life form, no moving your lips!

Yeah, when your ignorance about a subject you've pretended to be an expert of is revealed it's time to start tossing around the lamest insults a boy can think of, straight from the playground of elementary school. If you want other people to pay you any attention in the future, the time to grow up is now.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by VJ
Yeah, unrestricted whale-hunting on international waters which nobody really owns is exactly like farmers raising cattle on their barbe-wired ranches, what an accurate comparison! No need for international agreements and big punishments here, the whalers themselves can surely be trusted to regulate themselves. I mean it'd be impossible for humans to just accidentally hunt any species to extinction and thus **** over the whole ecosystem of the Pacific Ocean in ways which we aren't even aware of yet, right?

The IWC is supposed to manage stocks and help maintain healthy populations. Threatened species shouldn't be hunted.

The IWC was not intended to enforce a never ending moratorium.

Your 'unrestricted' and 'can't be trusted to regulate themselves' are part of the hyperbole I was referring to earlier.

Either allow the hunt, or Japan will withdraw and then Norway, and others maybe. Do you want management and restrictions, or a free-for-all because the purpose of the organization was subverted?

[RGBVideo]

Do you want management and restrictions, or a free-for-all because the purpose of the organization was subverted?

The former, and if you're saying that countries which have no ocean access like Austria and Switzerland shouldn't be allowed to vote, I agree with you.

[notyoueither]

Well, they have a vote because of how the organization was set up.

Japan has simply lost patience with it. Either there will be managed whaling, or Japan will leave and then there will be very little influence over what they do.

[FrostyBoy]

Don't worry; Greenpeace will sort this crap out.

All ya gotta do is sink the ships, can't be that hard.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Not with the War on Terror! Get those Greenpeace bastards!

[Drake Tungsten]

Whale is delicious, so keep it coming.

[Qilue]

I guess the responses in this thread proves that humans are really no different to other predators. Respiration, mastication, defication, all the rest is epeen building.

Thus whales will most likely join the others in the list of "Victims of Human Greed and Ignorance".

Dodo
Passenger Pigeon
Tasmanian Tiger

...to name just 3 out of an enormous list.