International Whaling Commission condems Whales??

[sanabas]

silly whales and their fishery raids. That sounds rather dumb, especially because, if i'm not mistaken, dont whales eeat mostly microscopic food and the like? they tend to leave the whole meat eating thing to the sharks and the humans

There are two types of whales, baleen & toothed. Baleen basically feed by straining plankton out of the water. Toothed whales (i.e. sperm whales, orcas, dolphins, etc) eat stuff.

 

[skadistic]

idk, i dont think i could eat it. i like my fish small and manageable. nothing bigger than a man

Then don't eat tuna or swordfish. Many of them can get very large, bigger then the average man.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

Then don't eat tuna or swordfish. Many of them can get very large, bigger then the average man.

ive never had swordfish, so i can deal without that loss

but tuna? im sorry but every rule has its exceptions

 

[Blazer6]

I don't see the point in blubbering over eating whales.
Paid for by the Save the Tuna Foundation.

 

[ainwood]

Moderator Action: Back on topic, please.

 

[Urederra]

Who cares? Waste the damn whales.

The ones that care the most for the whales not to extinct are the ones who hunt them. If whales disappear, so does their way of living.

Or at least I would be inclined to think that way.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

that, and whales play an important role in the marine ecosystem. removing them is a bad idea, with many unforseen consequences to be had

 

[boarder]

A few points id like to make.
Japan buys votes with aid to countrys that have no interest in whaling to try and get the numbers. e,g Tuavalu got 22 million in aid last year from them for joining and voteing for the Japenese.
Nz also gives millions in aid to a lot of these south pacific countrys as well as sending troops,advisors etc there to help sort them out and they go and vote with the Japenese for so called Aid money whereas if they turned whaling into a tourism attraction like here in Nz they would in the long run make more money and have created employment.
Whale meat contains high levels of Mercury so I dont reccomend eating it.
Japan has 2000? tonnes of whale meat stocked but the people dont want to eat it and its being used for dog food. I think its more of a pride thing for the Japenese government.
They claim that they kill 2000? whales a year for scientific reasons, yet it alll ends up being sold as food. And what kind of research needs you to kill 2000 whales a year, at least be honest about it.
Whales are the giants of the sea, lets protect them not slaughter them, we have enough other food, do we really need to kill them?

 

[Winner]

Well, I think we should now start hunting Japanese and Scandinavians. I think their numbers have grown enough in the last century and now, we have to put aside the so-called public opinion and start acting reasonably. I like their meat, so we should start hunting them without any irrational limitations.

(I guess they wouldn't like it, oh, I am so sorry, you ba***rds )

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Very funny, Winner.

Back on topic, the IWC is supposed to regulate whaling, not impose a moratorium.

And what the bleep has Pearl Harbor got to do with anything? Isn't that just inflammatory?

 

[Sidhe]

Japan vs US, I think he's trying to set his country up as anti whaling, which is probably accurate. We need whaling like we need deep ocean solar panels.

Eat beef, why don't you.

Although whale oil has little commercial value today, whale meat has come to be considered a delicacy, particularly in Japan and Norway (though up to the 1980s, whale meat was considered to be inferior to beef in Norway.) The primary species hunted today is the minke whale

 

[C~G]

It's apparent that whales hate freedom.
Any nation that harbours these fellows must face the most severe consequences.

Anybody have seen Conan O'Brien scene with fake Bush interview with "birds that carry the flu and hate freedom and the deck of cards made out of them?"
I almost fell out of my couch during that joke.

This reminds me greatly about that.

 

[Nobody]

And what the bleep has Pearl Harbor got to do with anything? Isn't that just inflammatory?

Yes i intended it to be, i meant to say that japan has a history of doing horrible things first was the attack on pearl habour and that this whale thing was equally evil. I think people understood that i was only kidding and i havent been warned so let it go.

Back on topic, do people really want to rid the world of this great creatures just to have dinner. Beef and lamb taste great, eat them.

anyway who decided what nations get a vote on the IWC, i read the list this morning and it seems that most normal nations vote to save the whales, except the japanese and the scandanavians and what ever little island nations they can pay to do their bidding. And Who gave mongolia a vote? they dont even have a sea!!

Also the whole arguement that whale meat is the japanese tradtional food, well im 1/3 maori and i would like to go back to my roots so i think the maori people should be able to take a yearly harvest of people. Hmmmm.... i could sure go for some ameri-burgers or russo-nugets.

 

[classical_hero]

They won that vote by only 1 vote. They need 75% majority to overturn the moratorium.

This was a meaningless victory because there were five votes taken and they lost four of them. This does nothing to pro whaling countries cause.

 

[Marshy]

Whales are tasty. We should hunt and kill and eat and render out all the resourses from them. Why are whales and dolphins so special? Is it because they are mamals? Well then so are cows and pigs.

If people can hunt whales at a sustainable level then it seems unfair to prevent them while allowing the hunting of other species of animals. My main reservations with whale hunting is that the hunting and killing of a whale looks extremely cruel to me. Not for some Disneyesque "aren't the whales so beautiful" reason. But they are difficult to kill and can suffer tremendously when hunted. On the other hand a good marksman can kill a deer almost instantly with a rifle. Cattle are also killed very quickly in abattoirs.

 

[Kal'thzar]

A few points id like to make.
Japan buys votes with aid to countrys that have no interest in whaling to try and get the numbers. e,g Tuavalu got 22 million in aid last year from them for joining and voteing for the Japenese.

To be fair, Initally this is how the Whale ban was introduced, some guy went around organising countries with little intrest in whaleing to join and vote for the moratorium.

Can't remember the full story, but if you search around I'm sure you can find it.

Of course that is not to say I agree with Whale hunting etc.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Back on topic, do people really want to rid the world of this great creatures just to have dinner. Beef and lamb taste great, eat them.

So does soy, carrots and potatoes, eat those, why do you have to kill cows and sheep?

anyway who decided what nations get a vote on the IWC, i read the list this morning and it seems that most normal nations vote to save the whales, except the japanese and the scandanavians and what ever little island nations they can pay to do their bidding. And Who gave mongolia a vote? they dont even have a sea!!

You know, that worked the other way around the first time:

However, since 70s, large number of countries which have no previous history of whaling (some of which are landlocked such as Switzerland and Mongolia) has joined IWC, which was instrumental in the necessary three-quarters majority vote to implement a pause on commercial whaling in 1986.

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Japan notes that major anti-whaling nations such as U.S. Australia, U.K. and New Zealand also donate aid to poor countries on the IWC and wield far more influence than Japan alone and thus they could easily be accused of the same tactics. Moreover, Japan is pushing to have secret ballot voting. Had the allegation of vote buying is true, such proposal would run counter to its alleged objective because it is impossible to monitor so called client members' vote.

---

Israel currently recieves more than 3 billion dollars a year in aid from the United states and has voted consistently with the anti whaling block.

You know, I think the whole "bought and paid votes from invalid countries" argument is a pile of dung.

Also the whole arguement that whale meat is the japanese tradtional food, well im 1/3 maori and i would like to go back to my roots so i think the maori people should be able to take a yearly harvest of people. Hmmmm.... i could sure go for some ameri-burgers or russo-nugets.

Don't be ridiculous.

 

[Shaihulud]

Large marine animals contain high amounts of toxic metals such as mercury and arsenic. Although i love my tuna and swordfish, i limit my consumption of this meats. Whales being the top of the foodchain is the worst offenders, so they make bad foodstuff.

 

[Sidhe]

Large marine animals contain high amounts of toxic metals such as mercury and arsenic. Although i love my tuna and swordfish, i limit my consumption of this meats. Whales being the top of the foodchain is the worst offenders, so they make bad foodstuff.

I'm not so sure about that, seeing as their source of food is at the bottom of the food chain. These metals are found in muscle and gain ingress into fish through the gills I believe which puts both plankton and whales right out of the picture.

Has anyone actually tasted whale here btw?

 

[Shaihulud]

Metals are usually stored in the bony structure of the bodies i think, although whales have a mechanism that stores such toxic metals in their fat. All organisms should contain trace amount of metals, however because of their age and the amount of food they consume. top of the food chain animals usually manage to accumulate it in their body without suffering from serious health problems, although that said. they have found several pods of Orca whales suffering from diminished immune system with lethal amounts of toxins in their body.