Japanese Whaling

[megan]

So you have all heard of what the Japanese plan to do with 800 whales a year for scientific purposes ( yeah right).

I was wondering your perspective and thoughs on this. Personally I think it is ridiculous and totally inhumane. If they want to eat Whales, maybe we could offer them some Cane Toads instead.

[Maria]

F*ck em. The scientific research crap has about as much validity as...sh1t I dunno actually, cause there's bugger all validity in it. Think it's about time this country woke up to itself and stopped tredding ever so delicately around our "friends" up north - countries who at the end of the day don't give a rat's arse about us despite how we treat them. Australia's always been a pretty laid back country, but when's the day going to dawn when someone will trully extract the digit and look out for Australia's interests....even if (God forbid) it does mean telling certain mobs to politely piss off. That's my rant for the moment.

[noodlemantra]

Thought it was 400/yr. Its 400 too many. Triple J's morning crew were talking about whale as a meat the other day. A guy rang up and said he'd tried it in a restaurant in japan. Said it was so good that he'd have it again.

I personally would shoot the mongrel who fired a harpoon into such a placid, beautiful creature. Man can be a digusting and repulsing creature at times.

[raefpud]

What - you mean u dont eat whale? its delicious, actualy its right up there with dolphin, Dugong and turtle..... Did u know that they were still hunted also, even in Australia??

When u think of whales u think of happy slow graceful beasts that bless us with there prescence at places like Hervey bay etc,, they make nice sing song squeaky noises and blow water like a shopping mall fountain. So before u shoot me down, I'd like to say that i dont condone the practices of the japanese whaling fleet......................however you really ought look at the facts. I'll just point out some basic facts for you.
* Norway, Denmark, Finland, Russia, North Korea, China and even USA are still talking whales at a much larger rate than 800 per year.
* Majority of mainland Japanese people believe in whale conservation and have never even tried whale
*It is mostly far northern Japanese that are after whale for nutrition and sustenance. The whale has been a staple part of their diet for many thousands of years.
*Australia used to catch whales for oil burners, cosmetics, fertilizers and pet foods, not for the direct consumption of its people.
*Humpbacks and the really big whales (that you see) are much less desirable than the smaller ones (pilot whales etc)
*It really doesnt taste that good( hahah, just kidding)

Its almost impossible to raise cattle and grow fruit and vegetables etc in a Country that is covered in snow and ice almost indefinately. Some of these whale eating people have survived this cold weather for many thousands of years primarily on whale blubber, so is it right to take their livelihoods away from them because Mimi McPherson has an expensive boat she needs to pay fuel for. We allow our natives to continue to eat turtle and dugong, yet its wrong for anyone else to take a whale for survival - let me tell you these people dont get Dole money, free housing and benefits once a fortnight.
I have had a whale breach from me only metres away in a 14ft tinny, and it truly is an awesome sight, however, who are we to tell a country that is open and honest about its whaling intentions, that they are wrong when many other more dishonest countries are taking many thousands more whales than they are.

[PinHead]

I don't necessarily agree with the killing of the whales, however, there is nothing we as a nation can do. We have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol and we do not expect anyone to tell us what to do in that respect. They have not ratified non whaling agreements therefore they do not expect anyone to tell them what to do. A bit hard on our part to preach to others when we do the same as them in a different sphere.

[Mick]

Cane toads?

[Jeremy]

if they have hunted whales for hundreds of years, they are welcome to continue to hunt them in their traditional manner, in their traditional hunting grounds, not in big, fast boats with cannons firing the harpoons.

Same goes for the Australian aboriginies. They want to hunt dugong, turtle etc...do it the same way their ancestors did. Not with outboard powered boats.

Aboriginal 'traditional' hunting is as much a disgrace (the way it is currently done) as is the Japanese 'scientific' whaling program.

My rant..

Jeremy

[bassmaster]

yes exactly if they hunted whales hundreds of years ago hoo are we to stop them they should stick with the traditional metods however they did it back then i dont know how but they shouldent take advantige of the tecknology even if they do have more of it than any othere countrey. with huge boats and spear cannons they will kill them all.

[noodlemantra]

its the fact there doing this in our waters and theres not a god damn thing down about it. modern day "whale pirates" of the ocean.

[bugman]

Acuatally Noodle,

They're only doing it in the Australian territorial waters of Antartica. Japan does not recognise our jurisdiction over that water - hence their plans to hunt.

As Pinhead said - similar to Australia's non signing of the Kyoto Protocol. We don't recognise emission standards of the rest of the world so therefore we don't have to comply with them.

Personally I'd like to see frigates permantly stationed in our Antarctic waters and the Southern Ocean. Patagonian Toothfish and Humpbacks may become a very very very expensive fishing expedition for foreign countries.

Brett

[smiggspig]

I dont mind if they do it in there own waters in there traditional craft with handspears, if they cant row there boats to antarctica then they shouldnt be allowed to hunt there.The only reason why they want to hunt in aussie waters is theres none left in there own!!. how much more scientific reseach can they do?to see if they taste better with bbq or chilli sauce!. maybe we should start hunting them for reseach(the whale hunters) like.....how many a cane toad will kill

[raefpud]

Well, i thought i better see what all the fuss was about, so I went up north and found myself in a fantastic fishing port with lots of great seafood markets - A lunch time trip to a local sushi bar found me eating many varietys of seafood delights. In my last post I said " it really doesnt taste that good" well, I lied........... whale tastes fantastic :o :o :o - U guys can can call me what u like and jump up and down and whinge and moan all you like about whaling.... I am a fisheries biologist, environmental scientist and conservationist, but I still say whale tastes great

[Jeremy]

Well, i thought i better see what all the fuss was about, so I went up north and found myself in a fantastic fishing port with lots of great seafood markets - A lunch time trip to a local sushi bar found me eating many varietys of seafood delights. In my last post I said " it really doesnt taste that good" well, I lied........... whale tastes fantastic :o #:o :o - U guys can can call me what u like and jump up and down and whinge and moan all you like about whaling.... I am a fisheries biologist, environmental scientist and conservationist, but I still say whale tastes great

So you support whaling Raef ??? I guess at least you had the guts to say so.

Jeremy

[PinHead]

if they have hunted whales for hundreds of years, they are welcome to continue to hunt them in their traditional manner, in their traditional hunting grounds, not in big, fast boats with cannons firing the harpoons.

Same goes for the Australian aboriginies. They want to hunt dugong, turtle etc...do it the same way their ancestors did. Not with outboard powered boats.

Aboriginal 'traditional' hunting is as much a disgrace (the way it is currently done) as is the Japanese 'scientific' whaling program.

My rant..

Jeremy


I am just wondering Jeremy..how do you fish...in the traditional ways of your Caucasian forefathers? Or do you use motors and rod n reels...none of those were around even as late as 1788..so why the difference in attitude?

And before you ask..no, I don't support whaling unless there is conclusive proof that the numbers can withstand it..BUT..I am also against the hypocrisy of preaching to other nations what they should be doing when we are no better ourselves in our attitudes.

[Maria]

I don't think the issue at hand is the technology used. The point is that whaling is no longer considered acceptable by a majority of the world's countries - especially when the countries practicing it wish to do so in another country's waters. To put it bluntly, although condemned by the majority, violence against women is still seen in some countries - the technology that your typical wank uses to flog a women however, is irrelevant.

[Dezzer]

Well said, good anology

[Jeremy]

I am just wondering Jeremy..how do you fish...in the traditional ways of your Caucasian forefathers? Or do you use motors and rod n reels...none of those were around even as late as 1788..so why the difference in attitude?

And before you ask..no, I don't support whaling unless there is conclusive proof that the numbers can withstand it..BUT..I am also against the hypocrisy of preaching to other nations what they should be doing when we are no better ourselves in our attitudes.

The DIFFERENCE is pin-head, that I don't target or catch PROTECTED species - like whales, dugong and turtles, as I wrote in my post.

Jeremy

[megan]

Re: Japanese Whaling whale1.jpg
« Reply #11 on: 12:14pm Today » Quote Quote
Well, i thought i better see what all the fuss was about, so I went up north and found myself in a fantastic fishing port with lots of great seafood markets - A lunch time trip to a local sushi bar found me eating many varietys of seafood delights. In my last post I said " it really doesnt taste that good" well, I lied........... whale tastes fantastic - U guys can can call me what u like and jump up and down and whinge and moan all you like about whaling.... I am a fisheries biologist, environmental scientist and conservationist, but I still say whale tastes grea

So then you think that everything that tastes fantastic should be hunted and killed for our greed? What if humans tasted good - would you start hunting them as well?

You gotta draw the line somewhere.

[roz]

Some species of whales were seriously endangered back in the sixties, because they were hunted by us and many other countries.

Australians in the past, have done a pretty good job of wiping out native fauna and flora. At least we have seen the error of our ways, and by trying to protecting what is left, wether it lives here or swims past the coast, gives us a pretty good right to point the finger.

Gone is Gone, no getting it back.

Too bad if it used to be traditional tucker... what ever.

Everybody has to pay the price now, otherwise it's all over red rover.

Roz

[Volvo]

Just goes ta show what one will do for the mighty$$..Werent the $$ involved i very much doubt it would be getting hunted as much..As for mankind bein a targeted species?/yes that also does happen in this world in the slave trade sadly :(..Worse still is, its done to Children and how often do you hear about it or see Governments get involved??...
Not as kind a world in some places as we think it to be and goes to show how proud n thankfull we should be of the Country we do live in..
Proud ta be Aussie ;)..
Cheers

[basserman]

well i'm not really for whaleing but like almost every animal i can't see anything wrong with hunting them as long as the studie is done first to see how much of the targeted animal could be taken with out any damage
sadly not much hope of that happening on any speices let alone a whale

but we must also remember that we were whale hunters for along time and only stoped in the late 60s
we must also remeber that us good old aussie are not the most freindly people when it come to animals and are the only country to eat boat animals on our coat of arms ;)

as i said not tottaly against it nor for it
but have to respect other cultures as long as they don't do it in our waters
i think the bigger worrie would be the big floating fish fatorys that rape our water each year chaseing tooth fish, nanigiy, and other deep water fish all in the name of turning them into birdseye fish fingers :-/

[catchandfillet]

i didnt think that racist threads or posts would be allowed here

[Maria]

Mate get your act together - there's not a racist comment on this thread.

[catchandfillet]

well..............i dunno but on another topic i just read a thread where an ausfish silver member admits eating whale

[catchandfillet]

and it is racist otherwise this thread topic would just b ...Whaling
not to mention the comments about indegenous australian fishing rights

[cooky]

Definition: Racism has historically been defined as the belief that race is the primary determinant of human capacities, that a certain race is inherently superior or inferior to others, and/or that individuals should be treated differently according to their racial designation. Sometimes racism means beliefs, practices, and institutions that discriminate against people based on their perceived or ascribed race.

Why is it that everytime that someone mentions black, white, asian, japs, indigenous, aboriginal, etc that someone has to pull out the RACIST bullsh*t. Mate I'm not blaming you, but we've been brainwashed into this crap. I didn't see evidence of anyone attempting to discriminate or degrade a culture in this post. The reference was made in relation to a fact - it would have got jumped on if he had posted "we kill turtles and dugongs" - posts flying saying not everyone is allowed, only indigenous people.

Who cares if you reference someone by nationality or culture. Do you see english people claim racism when they're called pommies?

[basserman]

nothing wrong with the member eating whale as he is over in japan at the moment and nothing racist has been said
only thing that has been brought up is how the japanise are planing to hunt whale in the australian water of the antartic (nothing new there as it has been in the news)
and also how the indegenous people of austalia have the right to hunt thier traditional food and all that most people but not all of us have said is that is fair enoght but they should hunt the way of the old timers

i would never call this site racist as i belive this site is one of the best multi cutured sites around with members from all over the world :-/

[catchandfillet]

so its ok for ausfish members,norwegians&russians to eat whale but not the eastern races? can any one here tell what tangalooma was?
the year is 2005 and the politacally correct vegeterian left are coming for us

[szopen]

I just had another look through the posts and I do not see any racist comments or ideas.

Now regarding the actual whaling by Japanese fleet and the mentioned ideas about them going out and hunting whales in the "traditional way".

As I understand this is not the same issue as some Native American tribes hunting a couple of whales a year as a way to keep their tribal traditions (I can not say but it seems there are simmilar arrangements in Australia for indegenous people).

This is a commercial operation designed to bring the whale meat to the market (scientific excuses aside). And is a practice in a certain way accepted in Japan.

From what I could imagine whale hunting done in traditional way let's say with small boats and hand held harpoons is not necessarily the safest type of excersize.
Japan being a democratic country any political moves that would force going back to "traditional" ways and result in a couple of fatalities would probably be suicidal.

I do not think that whaling is a proper thing to do but from a rather realistic point of view there is almost nothing that can be done about it.

If I am correct some of the countries in Europe also do commercial whaling, they do not use any "scientific excuses", and again no much can be done about it.

[Maria]

the year is 2005 and the politacally correct vegeterian left are coming for us

And judging by your comments, you're the clown that's leading them.

Couldn't agree more with cooky. It's happened time and time again - whenever someone mentions another race, the racism band wagon rolls into town with its league of bleeding hearts crackin the whips.

Making reference to a race of people does not make a person racist. I do however note that the racism calls usually come only after the mention of Aboriginal Australians, or Asians. Hindsight's a wonderful thing, but I'd happily put $50 on the fact that if the title of this thread was "United States Whaling", you wouldn't have even thought about your racism comments, much less posted them.

[basserman]

catch anf fillet i think your missing the point
it is not so much that people think that another country should or should whale it is more the comeing into australian water to do the whaleing where they are protected by australian law

[philip_thomson]

i say 4 words

BLOW UP THE BOATS

[PinHead]

catch...here is the challenge..show all of us one single racist comment on this thread?
There isn't any..if you think that stating that the Japanese whaling is racist you sure have a misguided idea of racism..it is identifying the country that has openly stated they want to whale in those areas...nothing racist about that..or should we say that a country from up north wants to shoot some marine mammals in an area of bloody cold water under the control of that mob in the south pacific..is that better.

As for one of the members eating whale..good luck to him..i have eaten roo, goanna, croc and buffalo...no problems with that at all.

We all know that Tangalooma was a whaling station..but things have changed..we do not hunt whales any more.

By all means state your opinion regarding the whaling..everyone here is entitled to their say (whether you agree with them or not) but please do not make comments about other people's posts which are blatantly untrue.

[Dug]

Tangalooma was a whaling station, I clearly remember being shown movies at school about our heroic whalers of Moerton Island in small boats hunting the massive whales. Great boys own stuff, I had a book with pictures and everything.

Time changes, things change, There is no need or reason to hunt whales so why do we do it. The meat is an expensive delicacy so the reason for hunting is money pure and simple.

If our government had a spine and a bit of determination this would not be happening, they will tolerate it for the same reason MONEY!!

[mal-laurie]

im with you phil.
the whaleing boats that enter and hunt whales our waters are no different than the boats that come in from indonisia and poach patagonian tooth fish and shark fin. they all should meet with the same fate. arrest the crew and burn the boat. this is regardless of which country they origanate from. protected means protected.

ps. im no greenie but the whales i see off the coast of noosa would have to be the most majestic animals on the planet and should be left alone. thats my 2cents worth

cheers mal (former name before the crash GETWET)

[fnqbunyip]

i say 4 words

BLOW UP THE BOATS



And all others that fail to respect our waters ....more naval patrol boats with the shoot first ,then aprehend any survivors type of orders .... It is that our government is spineless....


cheers fnqbunyip

[cooky]

I'm not sure that "majestic" or "beautiful" or "big" or whatever should come into this argument. Who gives a crap what something looks like. Is this the "kill all the ugly animals" brigade. Should kangaroos not be killed because they're cute, symbols of our country?

If whales were some big teethed, angry, ugly mutha f*kers - would we care if they were all set on fire, tortured, and then killed? ;D

THe argument should be more along the lines of protecting a species who's numbers are certainly not as numerous as mullet, tuna, etc. They just happen to be large, heavy things - the elephants of the sea. Beautiful yes, but a reason to save them - no.

What happens if we had to cull the human race suddenly to save the planet? would you be saved???? :D

[stunnedmullet]

Cooky you are as articulate as ever and crack me up ;D
The mullet(not endangered)

[devocean]

It is proven thathumpback whales are on the improve in a big way. The Aust govt is trying to stop the Japanese government from whaling. However this only further drives up the black market for the stuff. Its quite simple really, if there is a demand for something some one will supply it. It is simple economics its why we have so many drug dealers. What the Aust govt should do is regualte it and charge them for a quiota of whales in our area. We are not going to stop it we might as well make some money out of it whichmay go into some way of helping conserve them better.

What do you reckon possible aquaculture product? Only joking. Hope you all get my drift. As for racism your all adults get over it and get on with more fishing.

[Maria]

We are not going to stop it we might as well make some money out of it whichmay go into some way of helping conserve them better.


On the contrary. If governments are serious (chuckle permitted) about it, the problem can be easily rectified. Simple fact of the matter is that there's too many higher priorities (e.g. kissing arses) for the government standing in the way of them getting realistic and serious about it.

[mal-laurie]

cooky
id be the first culled if looks came into it.
but dont get me wrong i LOVE to kill anything that is legal to kill.
and ill have a crack at eating it as well.
i just get a lot of pleasure watching the humpbacks up here while outside getting a feed.
i think at some point in the future they may become a big saftey problem for boats if the numbers increase. but leave them alone for the time being.

[Dug]

Leave em alone! The whales will start culling ugly fishermen soon enough ;D ;D

If there are good reasons to harvest them then OK, but so far the reason is "Scientific research" not cull or food. #

If there is a reason to continue this "research" then let the Japs explain it in scientific journals like every one else has too.

The whales are more valuable too us as a tourist resource than as a Japanese food.

[DICER]

protect diversity - no whaling in Australian or Antartic waters. On an international level pressure should be applied to protect endangered species, regardless of who is doing the harpooning. As for Aboringinals or native people, then it is their right to persue their traditional activities.