Japan and Whaling

[ískallin]

My green/hippe/utopia views? Didn't I, just in my last post, talk about how I think it's okay for us to kill whales?

I actually didn't mean you in particular that was a bit of a grammatical error (although a stupid one ). But there are some here who seam to have as I put it "green/hippie/utopian" views.
But I do not see me as an expert on whales, not in the very least. I know many sailors who know a bit about fishing and the like ) But nevertheless some wikipedia knowledge on the orgin of a whales name or whatnot does not prove one as an expert. But the thing is that this is how most of the public thinks about whaling here in Iceland.

And once again no one is talking about hunting endangered species. The killer whale and the beaked whale (there were about 48000 here last year) are in very large quantaties around Iceland (don't know about other whaling nations) So I don't see how that is endagering anything as these species are getting to large for the sea to handle around Iceland(they fish that the cod eats or cod) so it would actually be healty to kill a bit of them.

And please inform me whenever I've called anyone names Because I don't see anything remotely offending to anyone in my writing.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by ískallin
And please inform me whenever I've called anyone names Because I don't see anything remotely offending to anyone in my writing.

That you don't even see what's offensive is offensive enough!

[Nugog]

From NZ newspapers

[Nugog]

And this.....

[Proteus_MST]

I think, they should allow "tradiional whaling" for japan (but disallow scientific whaling except for a few specimens a year).

And I mean really traditional, that is, by using the methods japanese used centuries ago.
Let me see, modern whaling methods cannot be called traditional as they were used by japan just from the second half 19th Century on.
This would leave only 2 methods which could be used:
1. Whaling with nets, i.e. encirclign the whale with boats and nets so that he has no room to move and can easily be harpooned. This technique was used by japan from the 17th century on

or, even more traditionsl
2. Using small boats to get near to the whale and harpoon him, the technique used before the 17th century.

This way the problem with whaling in Japan would solve itself:

Less whales getting caught, as the efficiency of the whalers declines (especially, much less than currently with scientific whaling).

And of course a reduction of the ppeople working in the whaling business without having to fire them. On the one hand, because of the traditional methods used from this time on, more whalers would get killed due to accidents and whales who don´t want to end as food, reducing the amount of people working in whaling steadily.
And of course much less new blood, as less and less people want to risk their lifes in whaling, as, using traditonal methods, it is much more dangerous.

This would lead to a decline of the whaling industry in Japan, probably in the end making whaling less of an industry, but more like big game hunting in africa, i.e. something for which reich people pay to find some form of adventure.

And it wouldn´t be bad as, after all, nowadays even in japan the people who like to eat whale meat are in decline (which AFAIK has lead to a PR campagne in Japan, to interest the people in eating whale meat again)

[DaShi]

Why not just clone whales?

[chequita guevara]

Most advanced societies have moved away from subsistence hunting.

Anyway, that silly person's insistence that the whales have depleted the cod make me suspect everything else he's saying. That's total BS. It's the ****ing Euros that have fished the cod into near extinction.

[DaShi]

Yeah, advanced societies kill for fun!

[Herra Gautason]

Anyway, that silly person's insistence that the whales have depleted the cod make me suspect everything else he's saying. That's total BS. It's the ****ing Euros that have fished the cod into near extinction.

They do, fact. What´s a BS?

[Lorizael]

Bologna sandwich.

[ískallin]

They didn't deplete the cod, I never claimed they did, but as of now the mink whale and killer whales stocks are too large for the waters around Iceland to support so it is preferrable that they should be cut down in size. Otherwise the whales plus the traditional fishing (fishing is about 80% of the nations income) will thin the cod stocks down until they will disappear.
And for you knowledge the USA make the largest amount of "scientific" whaling not Japan or by a long shot Iceland (we killed 40 mink whales out of 48000 last year, and that was the first time in decades ) It is sarcastic that they are always critizing the other whaling nations.

Most advanced societies have moved away from subsistence hunting.

Now THAT is a bit of a BS, Iceland is one of the most advanced countries in the world, and 80% of the gross national income comes from "subsistence hunting"...

Not very advanced eh

[RGBVideo]

you know mr. gautason...

here we have a thread which is about whales. it's topic is titled that it's about whales, the article which it links to is about whales

this kid here, iskallin, which i suppose you know since you're both n00bs who come here at the same time of day, has now admitted that "killer whales" as he insists on calling them aren't really, you know, whales by their definition

care to speculate why on earth he keeps on clinging to "killer whales" which we both agree aren't really whales when we're asking from him what sort of whales are responsible for the drastic fall among fish populations which the japanese fishers tell us they are so worried about now that they can justify whale hunting increases with these population fluctuations among fishes

[ískallin]

I'm no expert on Japanese whaling but most of my "BS" has been built around Icelandic situations. So what I said about the cod might not apply to japanese waters as they are quite far away from Iceland

But unfortunately Iceland is not very likely to start whaling again after the fisasco last after we hunted these 40 mink whales. But as for Japanese whaling I just hope if they start whaling again that they do it sensibly, don't exterminate some species as that would be a pretty bad PR move..
And they don't seem to be that popular anyway.

As for the killer whales, they are of the toothed whale family and are genarally considered whales (their large size)

[ískallin]

And according to a paper I just read from "Hafro" the Icelandic reaserch lab on the sea. The mink whale actually eats more fish than all the combined Icelandic fishing fleet...
Which is about one million tonns of fish

[Herra Gautason]

Bologna sandwich.

Thank you.