Job Discussion Forums

[Big John Stud]

Gordon wrote:

Big John Stud wrote: Look all you people criticizing the Japanese for eating whale meat are hypocrites unless you are a full vegetarian! What is the difference between eating cow or whale? None if you are the cow! I personally don't eat whale, but I do love steaks so I don't pass judgement! I think the extinction factor has to be an important consideration. I really don't know what kind of whales the Japanese whalers are getting and I am sure they don't care either. For scientific purposes? Come on. Maybe if a taste test can be called scientific. Which is better? Blue whale or gray?

Gordon no offense but you obviously don't have a scientific mind. Japan is doing extensive research on whales and so that is why they need to catch a few!

[JimDunlop2]

Big John: It isn't just Gordon who doubts Japan's motives for these "scientific" studies. It's all over the newspapers -- many other countries have the same doubts. They feel that the label "scientific study" is little more than a front for commercial whaling operations.

[Big John Stud]

[quote="JimDunlop2"]Big John: It isn't just Gordon who doubts Japan's motives for these "scientific" studies. It's all over the newspapers -- many other countries have the same doubts. They feel that the label "scientific study" is little more than a front for commercial whaling operations.[/quote]

Yea, I know! I was just joking!

[JimDunlop2]

Sorry... Sometimes it's hard to tell on a forum.

[Vince]

I don't object to whaling, as long as the Japanese moderate their catches. I don't know what 200 burgers a day at 10 branches equates to in the big picture of whale usage, but it might be a sign that the Japanese are keeping an eye on quantities. Or it might be lip service. Some Japanese defenses of whaling make it sound like the Japanese want a perpetual whale-meat orgy. The industry certainly wants that, and I've heard a lot of support for it from average Japanese too.

I remember speaking to students about ivory hanko. We discussed what's going on with elephants, and I pointed out that many American custom pool cue makers won't use ivory in their cues (it used to be the desired material for cue inlays). I didn't use an accusatory tone and left suggestions to them. With a couple exceptions, their only suggestion was to go right ahead using ivory for hanko and whatever else to the fullest extent of Japanese demand. They didn't seem to care when I pointed out that overuse now could mean no availability later (I didn't even bother with arguments about animal husbandry ethics or poaching). One girl was with me, but the rest wouldn't have any of it. Small sample size, but I've seen that attitude many other times.

[markle]

I'm all for the resumption of commercial whaling on traditional cultural grounds. I just want them to use traditional methods lets see their desire for a Whale steak sandwich after a couple days with a pointy stick in a rowboat.

[ndorfn]

[ndorfn]

[Big John Stud]

ndorfn wrote:

markle wrote: I'm all for the resumption of commercial whaling on traditional cultural grounds. I just want them to use traditional methods lets see their desire for a Whale steak sandwich after a couple days with a pointy stick in a rowboat. excellent!

I read an interesting article the other day in the Japan Times about how traditional methods causes the whale great pain. The article expressed why Japan should modernize their methods to catch and kill a whale so the whale feels less pain.

Anyway, I am for lifting the ban on whaling but monitoring whalers and keeping them from killing too many.

[Vince]

[cevanne]

The problem is not the killing and eating of whales. While I have not personally eaten whale, I'm sure it's nutricious and delicious. The problem is that whale reproduction is extremely slow. The live to be over a hundred years old. The human reproduction cycle in comparison is around 30 years. The person has to be at least 15 to have a baby, and then their baby needs at least 15 years to be able to reproduce again. Now, a whale lives a heck a lot longer. And their reproduction cycle is a lot longer too. 'Japanese Scientists say' that the whale population is at a point where they can start whaling again, but really this statistic is false. They could kill maybe 20 whales and then they'd have to wait another 70 years or something like that before they could kill any more. The time is not nigh for regular whaling. I have no moral issues against eating any kind of animal, but I do think we need to preserve our environment and animals and that means we have to be smarter. I am Canadian and yes the natives there are pressuring our government about whaling as well. I agree with the sentiment of the earlier comment that if they want to preserve their cultural heritage, they can get out on a boat with a spear and try to kill a whale. I'm sure that the Inuit (and Japanese) 150 years ago didn't have power boats and spear guns. Using these tools I imaging that they might have been able to kill a few whales a year.

[markle]

[Big John Stud]

markle wrote:

I'm sure an explosive charge attached to a steel shaft going off in your brain doesn't hurt at all, unless of course it misses and it hits the spine and you end up drowning at the bottom of the deep blue sea. At least when the monkey in the teacup has a pointy stick the whale has asome fighting chance- remember captain Ahab.

Get real! Having people spear you hurts no matter if you are some great big whale!

The problem with banning whaling is what happens if countries decide not to follow the ban? And what about poachers? Look at elephants how they are killed illegally for their tusk! And what about the Chinese killing grizzely bears for their bladder! And the chinese also hunt sharks just for the fin!
The only solution is to try to make an agreement that everyone is really to live up to!

[Vince]