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The Japanese people on whaling… We don’t care… What’s for dinner?

Images of Japanese Whaling

Recently in the international news media there has been a lot of hype surrounding photos released by the Australian government showing whaling by Japanese scientific research fleets [those interested can read British, American, and Australian ]. As an Australian who often checks newspaper websites from home, I found it was a featured news story getting a lot of attention. The Australian federal environmental minister went on the record and called the images “sickening.”

You’d think that the news about protests against Japanese whaling in western countries would make the people of this nation want the problem to go away. If asked most Japanese people seem quite apathetic. However, a recent survey in the Asahi Shimbun and reported in Australian newspapers says that the Japanese public continue to support the Japanese whaling program and by a margin of 2-1. It also says that 56% of people still want to see whale on the menu in restaurants (as it is in my local izakaya). Why?

Toshiko Marks, a professor of multicultural understanding at Shumei University, said: “I don’t know anyone sensible who honestly says they like to eat whale meat. I hate it because I was forced to eat it as a child immediately after the war because there was not much else. But if you ask young people, they’ve never tasted whale and don’t want to.

“On the other hand, there is a sense that we’re having this issue rammed down our throats and people do not like being told what to do by primarily Anglo-Saxon countries that have done some pretty cruel things themselves.”

So there it is — a big “up yours” to the west. I just hope that this is not the reason that the whaling continues, and I hope for all our sakes that the Japanese government’s numbers on whales are correct…

Do you find the photo in this post sickening?

63 comments - What do you think? Posted by Tony - February 12, 2008 at 3:40 pm

Categories: Anti-Japan, Japanese Food Tags: japan, save the whales, whales, whaling

soheythere

Replace that whale with a tuna.. it looks perfectly normal.
Even with the whale, no problemo?

http://www.frog.com whale lover

I personally think that every person on this website who agrees with whaling is an idiot and is sick in the head

morozco420

Are whale’s endangered? Hmmm, maybe, maybe not…either way, it’s like soheythere said above…replace that whale with a tuna or any other fish and no one could give a shit…but, ohhh, whales are cute, intelligent and don’t deserve to be slaughtered…

In the end, the real question is, “are they tasty?” If so, then make mine medium rare…

soheythere

the research fleet doesn’t hunt endangered species, nor would they make whales purposefully endangered.

i really don’t know the details of their “research,” but..

my mom told me that whales tasted good!!

after the research is over, used whales go to restaurants.. is what i heard. not too sure about this, but it sounds pretty true.
http://www.frog.com whale lover

Your all sick Whales are endangered .

Panna

So how big do the fish have to be before people start screaming ‘INJUSTICE!’?

Or is it that it’s o.k. as long as there are millions of them to eat, but when someone wants to have a nice whale burger they get reamed for it.

David Byrden

>> So how big do the fish have to be before people
>> start screaming ‘INJUSTICE!’?

Whales are not fish. They are mammals, like you.

Troy

So are cows, chickens, and pigs. I enjoy eating all of them.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

When did chickens come about this evolutionary metamorphisis?
The Overthinker

Come on, haven’t you ever sat back after the end of a long day with a big mug of warm chicken milk?
http://www.frog.com whale lover

No

Klauscore

Please …. this is an entertaining site to read. But don’t always write that these whalers are a “scientific research” fleet, which they aren’t. No one in the scientific community takes that claim seriously. They are out to make money by illegally slaughtering whales, some of which are indeed endangered.
If someone is in favor of eating whales he should say so, but not hide behind the J government’s lies about this being “science”.

david@tokyo

They aren’t making money out of this activity, the programme always receives taxpayer subsidies, and the whale meat is sold so as to ensure that the government does not make money out of it.

It is a research activity, the goal of which is to better understand the status of whale stocks through studies of biological parameters and their changes over periods of time, which in turn will enable humans to make wise decisions about how best to ensure the sustainable utilisation of these whale stocks.

The reality appears to be that people with a bias against killing whales for food also have a strong preference against killing whales for such research purposes.

It is a blatant lie to suggest that “no one in the scientific community tkes that claim seriously”.

“If someone is in favor of eating whales he should say so”

I’m in favour of tolerance for whale consumption (as I am for tolerance of beef consumption), and it’s because I tolerant whale consumption that I believe the Japanese government is doing the absolute appropriate thing by engaging in scientific research to better enable them and the international community to regulate future commercial whaling activities on an effecient and sustainable basis.

Klauscore

It is not a blatant lie, but the truth, that no one in the research community takes the claim that this is “research” seriously.

I spent some time at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, one of the world’s top oceanographic research institutions. Go there and suggest that this Japanese whale killing is “science”: they will only laugh at you (and then throw you out).

The least the Japanese government could do in this issue is not to be ridiculous hypocrites.
kabocha5000

david@tokyo
>The reality appears to be that people with a bias against killing whales for food also have a strong preference against killing whales for such research purposes.

Um, that’s not very suprising seeing as if there really is any research being done in this manner its purpose would be to understand the “biological parameters” of the whales so that people can go find them, kill them, and ultimately eat them. Killing whales for food or for research (research by the whaling industry’s interpretation, not some university or research institute) is conducted toward the same end: food.

But when you think about it, you probably wouldn’t really have to kill any whales to find out these biological parameters of where they go, and how many there are, etc. Because, hey, if you’ve managed to kill a whale it shows you already knew where to find them, so no more research is necessary for that. And catching and killing one isn’t going to tell you anything about the population (except maybe in the past tense; I killed a lot of whales today, so up until that point there were quite a few whales and now there are less). If you want to know the status of some “stock” all you have to do is take stock of it, you don’t have to kill it. Maybe one thing that research conducted with the harpoon can tell you is what is the best most efficient way to kill a whale.

jc

The treehuggers and animal lovers can say all they want about why we shouldn’t hunt whales and seals. What they always ignore is that for many people, this is their lifeblood. Take away what they do for a living, and these activists create civil unrest or worse… instability and tension. And then these folks who championed such efforts would turn around and claim it’s not their faults for instigating conflicts.

In a similar vein nobody in America cares about Iraq. Really, nobody cares. It’s not even on the daily news. Right now it is only because American lives are involved.

Sometimes I wish all of these activists (who, most of the time, only “pretend to care”) would leave us alone.

foobar

lifeblood? What century are you talking about? Go to any seaside village here in JP and you will have a hard time finding anyone who claims whaling to be their “lifeblood”. Sometimes I wish these people who think that it’s easier to snipe at people who do actually care about our world would leave us alone.

Nobody cares about iraq? whaaa? You sound sorely misinformed my fellow netizen.

Bern

This photo is not very nice as all slaughtered animals is not very nice to look at. Be it a dead cow, kangaroo or whales. The end product whale meat is nice and what makes people want to kill whales. Its because of the food and not the killing orgy.

IWC stands for International Whaling Committee. It is a whaling organization. Each country is obliged to work in the best interest of the whalng industry. So I have no clue what Australia is trying to pull off by stunts like this one when they are obliged to work in the best interest of the whaling industry according to scientific data annd findings. Despite Australia trying their best to oppose whaling they are still bound by the contract they have signed on therefore if this case does come up to court I do not hink Australia has a very strong chance to win.

Each member state of IWC can permit a research programme. The research is carried out so that countries can conduct a commercial hunt once there is enough data on the stock numbers.

Australia should either try to do their jobs in IWC or leave IWC. At the current stage they are sabotaging their own agreement.
David

It’s absolutely ridiculous when people get all worked up about whaling and try to make it out to be so much worse than killing other animals. If people focused on the conservation issue that would find but you mostly here people complaining that it is “barbaric” or “disgusting”. These are probably the same kind of people that think the Chinese are inhumane for eating dog meat. It smacks of racism and ethnocentrism.

Erika

I agree wholeheartedly. It’s just xenophobia, really. I don’t condone the cruel ways in which some Korean dog-sellers kill their dogs, but I also don’t condone the way some cattle farmers over here kill cattle.

kay

so i take it that none of you guys are bothered by the dolphin hunts either?

i agree that eating a whale should be no different than killing a pig or a cow.. BUT!!! the only difference is that some of these whales are endangered. and although the type of whales that japanese whalers are hunting (mooostly minkes) are not endangered.

with that said… the ocean is going to crap, not to mention the world. the world will not be able to withstand its food demands, or the ravenous seafood appetites of the japanese. something will give sooner or later. and taking whales out of the ocean, to eat, is not helping the problem.

I do not have a problem with the consumption of whales, only the long-term effect that it has on the entire ocean ecosystem.

David

The only reason to be bothered by dolphin hunting is if the dolphins are endangered. Are they?

Anyway your comment doesn’t make much sense to me. You say that there is no a priori reason killing whales is worse than killing other animals, and then that most of the whales the Japanese hunt aren’t even endangered. So what’s the problem??

kay

its’ very different from hunting deer, where monitoring the population levels is much simpler than monitoring the whale populations. many more unknowns within the ocean.

also. Since they are hunting directly from mother nature, it’s not like a giant cow farm where all the meat cows live in their own filth. whalers are messing wiht the entire ocean! ehhh…. the fish are getting to harder to catch, so who needs whales anyway!

Erika

And where does all the waste from the cow/pig/chickens end up? In the ocean.
Why isn’t anyone but Peta (lol) doing anything to stop that?

David

Funny youtube video:
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=4U27EtmiRRA

The guy seems slightly crazy, but his views are sound which is more than can be said about these australian whale-ophiles.
The Overthinker

I was at an izakaya last night, and noticed the menu said “now valuable tuna (maguro)”, a clear reference to the diminishing takes. It also sold quite a few whale dishes – sushi, ‘bacon’ (from the blubber), etc. Our party actually ordered some whale bacon, but I didn’t have any – not that fond of it, and there wasn’t that much anyway. However no one seemed remotely interested in the whaling issue, and this was a bunch of well-informed students and academics, not some group of random workers. And by “not interested” I mean they didn’t really seem to give it much thought one way or the other.
RYO

Why is it that, unlike for any other animal-protection program (such as with respects to elephants, tigers, and pandas), whales are referred to in such broad terms rather than in more species-specific terms? This tendency reminds me somewhat of the way in which many people in the West refer to Africa and its myriad peoples and cultures with a singular term.

As far as I understand, the particular species that Japanese whalers are hunting are not endangered. Once this premise is accepted (and the “research” hunts are confirming this), then all other arguments against whaling become crushed under the weight of hypocrisy.
http://mboogiedown-japan.blogspot.com Mboogie

Young people have never eaten whale and don’t want to?!

It was on our school lunch menus! At least where I live, kindergarten, elementary and junior high school students all eat whale meat!

oompa loompa

You must not be in Tokyo… Growing up in Tokyo I’ve never been served whale at school, not even at home. The only Tokyoites that seemed to be familiar with whale meat were the middle-aged businessmen picking on whale blubber (bacon) with a nice cold one at an izakaya on the way home from work.

Bern

The dolphin hunt they have in Taiji is not very nice to look at. They have the same types of hunt in other places too where they drive schools ( not sure if that is the right English word) of dolphins and trap them. BUT I think it is the people of Taiji who should choose if they want to continue this tradition or not. If the dolphins are endangered then that is a complete different story.

kay
>its’ very different from hunting deer, where monitoring the population levels is much simpler than monitoring the whale populations. many more unknowns within the ocean.

Whale hunting compared with deer hunting is much more monitored. In a whale hunt the exact number of whales are being registered where as in deer hunt or kangaroo cull there are only broad estimates.

I agreee though our oceans are in a critical stage and we need to use the eco system in a sustainable manner and unfortunately this not being done today.

I do not see anything wrong with a sustainable hunt of whales and to make the hunt of whales as humane as possible using modern technology.

kabocha5000

Why on earth would you, out of the blue, include kangaroos in your example when you could have used any other hunted species? You’re not trying to imply that the Australians are not as responsible in their slaughter monitoring practices as those countries who kill whale, and therefore guilty of some sort of hypocrisy, are you?

You shouldn’t compare monitoring hunting between whales and those much smaller land species anyway. It would seem pretty obvious that monitoring whale slaughter is a lot simpler; its easier to keep track of how many are killed because it is at a much slower rate and a more involved process (and the whole world is watching).

Plus, I would imagine it would be more necessary to monitor whale killing because whales probably reproduce at a much slower rate than deer or kangaroo, particularly if potential mates are killed on top of already-low chances of finding a mate in the first place in the harsh environment they live in. That is, it is potentially easier to wipe them out.

Deer and kangaroo are probably not under such pressures because they live all their lives within close proximity to each other and in great numbers. True, that does mean that one could go out among the kangaroo and kill them in great numbers as well, but they are probably more capable of restoring their populations than whales.

Earth Lover

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinct_Australian_animals

Erika

That link makes me sad :’(
shazzb0t

I suppose the Japanese are to blame for the loss of these animals as well?

luxis

It’s good to see that the majority of people here understand the taht just because some government moans and says an animal is endangered its most likely not the case.

As i’ve said before in previous discussions if any type of animal is really endangered and there are ways of hleping or preventing this THE GOVERNMENTS TAKE PROPER ACTION AND DON@T LEAVE IT TO NUT JOBS THAT ILLEGALL BORED SHIPS.

Take gorillas for instance, they have been subject to intenst poaching for years, sot eh governments in africa set up reserves and have armed guards protecting them, even though some are still killed by poachers , this is a clear example of a real case of endangerment.
OsakaGuy

Ask yourself if you really think it is ethical to kill any living thing. Probably everyone agrees it is OK to kill plants. How about mice? Some might say yes, some might say no. How about dogs? Whales? Chimps? Humans? It seems like there is a definite hierarchy of living things, and a good case could be made that certain animals should be off limits. Remember, humans are animals too. We’re just the “third chimpanzee”.

Secondly whale meat is chock full of mercury and dioxins. In the US they recommend you shouldn’t eat more than one can of tuna per week, and pregnant women shouldn’t eat it at all. Whale meat is worse.

Finally, whales are not equivalent to domesticated animals like cows and pigs which humans have created through selective breeding. Domesticated animals can’t be raised and slaughtered in a controlled fashion to minimize suffering. (Ideally) The same can not be done with wild animals.

The Overthinker

I think you mean “can” at the end. In terms of raising them, wild animals (theoretically) have the better deal, as they live without human interference until they are killed. However a good farm will be better I think, as it will guarantee food and shelter and freedom from predators (until we kill them…).

Personally I’d love to see whale farms. Arthur C Clarke wrote a book (The Deep Range) about such.

OsakaGuy

D’oh! Damn you fingers. Yes “can”.

I think wild animals suffer more since they can’t be killed in a quick and humane fashion. Whales especially have tight family groups, which must be torn apart from hunting. Elephants are another example. They have been seen returning to the bones of a dead comrade to mourn the death.

But you have a point, most real world farms and slaughterhouses are pretty grim.

Human moral sense is always evolving. In past centuries animals were objects to be exploited, and that attitude is slowly changing. See Peter Singers “expanding circle” idea:
http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/199704–.htm

First “human” rights only applied to white people (In the original US slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person for example), then it expanded to include all people. There is no good reason not to include chimps (google the great ape project), why not expand it further?

RYO

These moral questions are interesting perhaps but the fact is that slaves were people. Human rights should be universally but exclusively applied to people.

We should be responsible custodians over the rest of nature. As long as whales are killed relatively humanely, are not endangered, and are killed for a reasonable and not wasteful purpose (research and food), then we have, in my opinion, fulfilled our moral obligations and need not commit ourselves to going any further.

If we do wish to expand the “circle”, what would the criteria be? Would such criteria be valid? And how would such criteria be quantified to provide a workable hierarchy?
The Overthinker

“If we do wish to expand the “circle”, what would the criteria be?”

Easy. Any being may claim rights so long as they are actually able to claim them (through force or words). Otherwise they need to make do with what we grant them.
OsakaGuy

“Any being may claim rights so long as they are actually able to claim them (through force or words).”

Those chimps sure do struggle when I try to get the collar around their neck. Does that count as force?

How about paralyzed humans with no ability to talk?

I understand your point though. It’s just that I think as beings with free will and empathy it should be our duty to minimize suffering in the world. A lion can’t choose not to chase and kill an antelope in a horribly gruesome and painful way, but we can. That free will does set us apart from the animals and we should use it wisely to minimize harm.

shazzb0t

Shoot, if you think this picture is bad, lets get a couple pictures of a slaughter house up. Then you’ll really have a grand ol’ time.
Chiablo

Honestly, I’m more against the slaughter of cattle than I am the slaughter of whales.

Now pass the wasabi, I’m so hungry I could eat a whale!
Evan

i dont see any resolution to this problem. anglophone nations will continue the pressure and japan will continue whaling because of the pressure.
Brett

What cracks me up is when people say “It’s a tradition”. Really?
Japanese fisherman traveled all the way to the artic to hunt whale?
Anybody know when and where the traditional Japanese hunting grounds for whales were?

The Overthinker

Local waters around Japan, on a small scale in small boats, and not that common really anyway. Modern whaling was brought in by the West (one reason Japan got its doors prised open was actually so whalers could coal and water on the far side of the Pacific), then after WW2 SCAP promoted whale as a cheap source of meat. So a generation or two of Japanese grew up after the war on whale and is now nostalgic.

thomas

It’s also a lot less damaging to the ocean eco system when harpooning whales instead of setting up large fishnets (which Australia and the west are guilty of) to catch an equivalent amount of fish. Considering the number of whales (and dolphins too) that are sustainable, it’s actually the better choice.

The Overthinker

Japan has long been known for massive catch-anything nets too, don’t forget. It’s not that Japan harpoons whales and leaves the other fish alone.

kay

Sure it’s easy to count the number of whales slaughtered… but what is important is the current number of whales. There is no way to determine sustainability withoout accurate information of the actual population of whales.

How do we even know that the number of whales they are slaughtering are even sustainable? i don’t have any issues with the ethics of eating whales, only the damage it will produce within the ecosystems of the ocean. b
soheythere

Sorry this might be off topic, but this reminded me of the story of a little girl who had a pet goat.
———
Her parents gave her the goat as a pet.. until it was fat enough to feed the entire family. (the girl didn’t know goats were edible) The story told all the experiences she had, how adorable it was, and just about when the girl was thinking of more things to do later on..

The goat ‘disappeared.’

She searched everywhere, inside and outside of the house, in the barn, even went out to the streets. When she came back home, it showed up for dinner.

She whined and screamed, how brutal and inhumane it was to kill her precious, adorable little goat. But when she took a bite, she couldn’t resist its taste. She came back for seconds and thirds and so forth..
———

So yeah, whales might be intelligent and cute creatures that’s worth protecting. But what if… even if you thought it was gross and inhumane to chew on, what if it turned out really good, huh?

If you go to Nagano prefecture, would you say “Don’t kill bees! They are precious?” no, right? They eat bees, that’s how it’s been, and they aren’t endangered.

Have you seen that blog article, where there’s a place that serves worms with spaghetti? You think it’s gross? Well not for them. It’s bad manners if you say that sort of thing.

By the way, eating cattle was uncommon in Japan until the late 1800s. The whites (not sure which) passed on their tradition.
Bern

I hope Japan continues whaling and Australia keeps protesting. I think the hysteria surrounding whaling is better than the whale meat itself.

>What cracks me up is when people say “It’s a tradition”. Really?
Japanese fisherman traveled all the way to the artic to hunt whale?

It is traditional because Japanese have been eating whale meeat for thousands of years. Traditional does not imply that a certain aspect of the culture have to be static and not change. Cultures evolve and change yet they can stay traditional.

Baseball is a traditional American sport but baseball has changed a great deal the last 100 years but it still is a traditional American sport.

ｂｒｅｔｔ

thousands of years?
Do you have any data to support that?
What I was implying was they should stick closer to what their traditional ways are. Not jumping into a modern vessel to sail halfway around the world and use harpoons to fish for some whale meat that few people seem to want to eat.
Doesnt seem very traditional.
I could argue that eating hamburgers is my tradition. Its not. Its just something i enjoy eating.
I was under the impression that the act of fishing for whales was more a part of the tradition than whaleburgers.
If its a tradition than at least keep it in Japan.

The Overthinker

SOME “Japanese have been eating whale meeat [sic] for thousands of years”. And back a couple of thousand years ago they would have been limited to beached whales. Whale was never a significant part of the diet.More common in the Edo period, but again, small whales caught inshore, and not a major factor in menus either.

Bernt

There are ancient Japanese tales from pre Buddhism where whaling is discribed. Japanese have been eating whales much longer than beef.

The Overthinker

“Japanese have been eating whales much longer than beef.”

This is not in dispute. Beef may have been consumed in the very early days, though I am not aware of any reports of it, but for much of recorded history it is absent. It only made inroads post-Meiji, influenced by Western dietary ideas.

Which pre-Buddhism tales do you refer to?

Bern

I find the thought that people should only be allowed to hunt whales if they use rowing boats and hand held harpoons to be an outdated imperialistic view. Modern countries should still be able to hunt whales if they want to. Japan hunts in international waters. Any country in the world can hunt whales in international waters as clearly defined in the UN charter. Law of the sea. To utilize a renweable natural resources should be welcomed and environmental organizations like Greenpeace or Australia should instead of opposing whaling welcome it as an eco friendly form of food production. Energy use is low in relation to yield and the natural habitat remains unaffected.

kabocha5000

So how renewable a resource are whales? Do they reproduce at the same rate that they are slaughtered? Are the odds in favor or against their ability to recover their populations after mass hunting as the whaling industry intends to do? I don’t think even you know, so it is not appropriate to suggest to everybody that whales are a renewable resource when there is not enough information.

The natural habitat remains unaffected?? That is an incredibly vague statement. Whose habitat? The whales? Their prey? What exactly do you mean? Whether the “natural habitat” is affected or not is an even bigger unknown than whether whales could count as a renewable resource.

JW

I’m Australian and don’t particularly care about whales. What I do care about is blatant disrespect of Australian waters by the Japanese. They don’t recognise them as ours until they get harassed by hippies and then they want us to reprimand them. They can’t have it both ways, either the waters are ours and our responsibilty or they don’t recognise them as ours in which case tough bikkies.

guest

well if you watch how their killed maybe you would care, its the most disgusting thing i’ve seen, so not tough bikkies people should just leave animals alone and give a heart, yeah ?

goodguyinjapan

These jaunts down to the Antarctic are about preserving Japan’s food culture.

Japan’s politicians and fisheries spokesmen have made this clear time and time again.
They want whales to preserve their food culture. And they go to the Antarctic to take them.
They even have a society called “The Association to Protect Japan’s Whaling and Food Culture”. I couldn’t believe it either but it’s true! And this society has a meeting just before the IWC meeting every year. Who makes one of the keynote speeches? You guessed it… Japan’s representative to the IWC!!
Not about culture?! How ridiculous. Japan’s Antarctic whaling is ALL about culture… Japan’s oh-so-precious food culture.

The pro-whalers try to deflect any criticism with “sustainable use”… that doesn’t explain anything. Sustainable use just means that you intend to use a renewable resource sustainably. Big deal. Anyone with an ounce of sense would expect any renewable resource to be used sustainably. A 10-year-old could tell you that.

So you have some of this renewable resource on your doorstep (that’s a given, according to Japan’s own data). Not just some, an abundance! More than enough to satisfy this very very important food culture that you like to tell everybody about.
So you take that resource… sustainably mind you. And there’s enough of it.
So why on earth do you need to organize massive Victorian-era style expeditions to the furthest reaches of the globe to get more of that resource?
Any explanation?
Oh yes, the food culture… the very important food culture.

We’ve had a lot of Japan making a big deal about international waters and deriding any Ozzie or Kiwi claims to the area. How about Japan look at her own actions? How about Okinotorishima? Japan has poured millions of dollars of concrete (how’s that for the environment?) onto some specks of coral peeping up from the ocean and then claimed a massive 400,000 km² EEZ around it. Anyone want to come there and take resources to protect their food culture? Look at the reaction China got by just having some ships do an oceanographic survey there. Japan would go ballistic if the Ozzies came up there and tried taking marine creatures which they said were necessary for Australia’s “barbecue culture” or something like that. It’s this kind of hypocrisy from Japan that people don’t like.

So how about it Japan? Why not take the whales you need to preserve your food culture in your neck of the woods? It would save a lot of gasoline and greenhouse gas emissions.
sabrina

how many whales must be caught and slaughtered every year for so-called research??? Haven’t you gotten your answers yet? Please don’t use scientific research as an excuse for slaughtering mammals that end up on your dinner plate. Youa ren’t breeding these animals for slaughter. They also belong to every country and my country doesn’t want you killing them anymore. And dolphins. I’ve seen the footage. It’s barbaric and disgusting and smart people like you should act more civilized and not lie about “research”. The whales swim in international waters therefore they belong to all the international countries and we don’t want you to slaughter and eat them anymore. Enough said.

stereo

“how many whales must be caught and slaughtered every year for so-called research?”

As many as to make a good estimate of population and age distribution of whales.

And I will tell you. If you do not want Japan’s research whaling, tell the anti-whaling groups to stop saying “we cannot tell the number of whales with statistical significance, because the sample size of research whaling is too small.”

All the scientific data show that there are enough whales for sustainable commercial whaling. Remember the moratorium was agreed to stay until IWC ends its research and finds sustainable whale stock. Anti-whalers are frustrating this process using absurd and unscientific arguments. “Too small sample size” is one of those nonsense.

Now, it seems that they cannot hide any more the fact that there are enough whales for sustainable commercial whaling, they are shifting their strategy to “we cannot allow commercial whaling because Japanese are unfair.” So, they are trying to build an image that “Research whaling is commercial whaling in disguise,” which is nonsense. But it seems their new tactics is working since there are a lot of Westerners who believe it without second thought, whenever someone whisper in their ears that Japanese are unfair.

Be reasonable. Research whaling is necessary to know the age distribution of whales. If the data show there are enough whales for sustainable commercial whaling, let them do it.

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The Japanese people on whaling… We don’t care… What’s for dinner?

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