Save the Whales [with violent piracy on the high seas]

IMO to regard animal life as above human life is to debase all humans. He and his ilk have no right to do that to me or anyone else.

I don’t hope for death or violence against them but if they get what’s coming to them so be it. It’s the choice they’ve made for themselves.

Getting yourself classed as a pirate is no way to go. It’s telling that the pirate angle is really being pushed, though.
While not an exact parallel, this reminds me of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985. They’re treading in dangerous waters once they get aggressive as that gives their better-equipped targets a valid excuse to retaliate.

That said, Japan’s whaling program is nonsensical and absurd. There’s not even a decent economic rationale for it.

David, I respect you, in a way, for what you’re doing, although I’m not sure why whaling is such a crusade of yours that you find and comment only on whaling posts no matter where they pop up. (We went through this over at TPR a couple of months ago>.) You even have long cut-and-paste arguments not necessarily addressing the counter-arguments made ready to go.

What I’m not clear on and what I haven’t seen you yet explain is how rising consumption figures would in any way justify what has already been spent and what is crrently being spent on this program. You also conveniently skip over the fact that almost all of the rise in consumption comes from public-spending initiatives, such as public schools being ordered to purchase whale meat or whale meat being served in other public institutions. That’s not rising demand, that’s the same people who fund whaling buying the produce of those expeditions.
On top of that, it’s a perishable commodity. It makes no sense to hunt whales now and get the meat in preparation for a possible rise in consumption or, more realistically, a rise in the ultimate producers buying their own produce.

The argument to justify whaling, regardless of consumption, is even harder to make.

Really, if it’s not economically rational today, it’s not economically rational at all. More whaling today is hurting, not helping Japan’s case for whaling and leaves unanswered the question of why on earth they’d want to make a case for it to begin with.

Garrett,

If you feel I’m ignoring a “counter-argument” as opposed to you simply not being satisfied with my response to a “counter-argument”, feel free to take it up with me, I’m more than happy to address specifics and give you my opinion on any aspect of the whaling debate.

Rising consumption? It’s not meant to “justify” the programmes. The point of the programme is not to increase whale meat sales. The reason I make the point about rising consumption generally is because Greenpeace and other groups have tried to tell the western public that the market for whale meat in Japan is stagnant, and dying. The increases clearly indicate otherwise. I raise the issue here because you claim that the activity wouldn’t be economically rationalle the potential for further increases in consumption is evident.

You say: “You also conveniently skip over the fact that almost all of the rise in consumption comes from public-spending initiatives”

I’d like to know the basis for your making that statement, because I’ve considered that possibility previously, and found that the majority of the rise in consumption comes from private demand. I found that the amount of whale meat allocated for public initiatives actually dropped between 2004 and 2006 from about 1,000 tonnes to about 900 tonnes (although still 450 tonnes higher than 2002). So that volume was basically constant.

Refer to the section “Use is non-profit activities” at my Whaling FAQ:
http://whaling-faq.blogspot.com/2006/11/faq-5.html

On the other hand, from 2004 to 2006, total consumption (including sale of products from by-caught whales has increased from around 5,000 tonnes to more than 7,000 tonnes in 2006 (that’s a conservative estimate, I don’t have the November and December figures for 2006 yet).

So, having criticised me for “conveniently skipping” something, I now challenge you to back up your criticism or withdraw it (and perhaps apologise for being so rude).

You also make claims of public schools being “ordered” to use whale meat in their school lunch programmes. Got a cite for that one?

You talk about whale meat being perishable. The fact is that it is frozen in storage and can be held for many years, but the fact is that the whale meat stockpiles are turning over. Consumption over the past 12 months amounts to around 90% of the supply over the same period, and that’s a 12 months that saw a relatively large increase in supply due to the JARPA II programme’s commencement.

Perhaps it’s our difference of understanding these points that can reconcile why you have a different perspective to me on whether the activity has the potential to be a commercial success.

I am required to correct some miscondcuts on this issue for justice.

First of all, anti-whaling people may not eat any animals.

Secondly, anti-whaling people have sort of racism.
They show even sympathy to the people of Norway and Iceland.
If those people were not wahling, they would be looking down on the Japanese.

Besides, a kind of whale has begun stranding to Japanese beach because of the saturation by prohibition of fishery.
Japanese government is expending $300,000 to burry the dead whales.
I wonder how many poor people can be saved by the money.

Good on the sheperds of the sea for using violence to stop the whaling fleet its time to take drastic action.
Before any action becomes futile and we can,t stop the extinction of whales at all. if thery want some help i,m a good shot with the rifle. and have some ingenious ideas on how to stop the whaling ships without sinking them. time to say enough is enough!