killing whales???your opinion?

[linnie]

Do you think it is ok that the Japanese want to double their whale kill quota?

One japanese man made the comment that it was no different to killing kangaroos..... I have to differ as whales are endangered species and kangaroos are in no short supply here in aussie land

Do you think it is unreasonable for the world in which we live to try and preserve endangered species if it deprives a country of a delicacy they like?

I would personally hate to see the minky whale disappear.

[BellFounder]

I think they should be banned from killing them altogether. At the very least there should be a restriction on the species they are allowed to kill. I have absolutely NO problems with killing animals for food but please - animals that are raised for it, or at least are not endangered.

[Cassiepeia]

I think they should be banned from killing them as well.

A delicacy is not a necessity, it's a luxury.

If kangaroos were endangered there is no way we, in Australia, would eat them.

There is no reason for the Japanese to kill these whales (any whale).

The whole issue, quite frankly, disgusts me.

Cass.

Ok...I admit it, I'm in a bad mood tonight.

[mulroony]

That is just selfish. I would hate to think that future generations would have no chance to experience whales so that a few Japanese people, or anyone for that matter, can feel extra pompous. There is plenty of other food out there, so I think this is one delicacy they can give up. I am not going to go out and start eating elephant because I like the meat. There is simply no need. There are a lot of people out there working very hard to bring the whale numbers back up and all this is doing is making their efforts meaningless.

[Raised By Wolves]

This is one sad topic for me. I've seen footage of dolphin slaughtering in Asia. Dolphins are driven into coves, beaten and stabbed to death. The deaths were not quick, they all died, while watching their pod members being brutalized all around them. It was a digusting bloodbath. The dolphins were crying out...(reminded me of how they used to beat baby harp seals over the head and skin them while they were still alive...I haven't heard if this practice has been stopped altogether, or not).

No way can I give a calm, unemotional comment here. This shakes me to my core! Those dolphins suffered horrible deaths. As far as I know, these slaughters are still going on as I write this.

I live in the Pacific Northwest. We have a tribe here, which is allowed to take a gray whale on occasion. This is done as a tribal ceremony. Even though they strike it with a harpoon, to follow tradition, the whale is then immediately shot to keep it's suffering at a minimum. I don't like this... but as a person who eats meat, wears leather, and likes to dig clams and go fishing for food, I can't throw stones in this situation... I still hate to see anyone kill a whale, for any reason. Perhaps it's my small amout of Native American blood, that's keeping me from joining the people protesting these annual hunts, I don't know...

Now, if anyone went after one of our precious and very endangered Orcas, which are considered a separate and unique group, (and a sub species, different from the "transient" pods), I'd probably be out there in my dingy, whacking the "whalers" with my little plastic paddle.

[Carrie]

I think it's terrible! Those mammals are too high an order of animal for killing and they are in danger of going extinct. What a shame.

[Ritz459]

It is disgusting. In know way should you kill an endangered animal just because their meat tastes good. I agree with Bellfounder on this one. The whole practice disgustes me. Just like people who kill Tigers for fur...what is the freaken point?!

[calgal]

As long as the perfume companies and companies that use oils for other things such as lanterns and such buy this product, it will continue. We need to go after those that BUY the whale products! Back in 1972 I was fighting this very same thing. It seemed to die down for a few years and now it's back in full force. I hate it and it needs to be put in front of congress. What I don't understand is why the experts aren't doing just that????

[Ritz459]

What I don't understand is that if the whales are endangered, why are they allowed to hunt them?

[Raised By Wolves]

Ritz,

I think part of it has to do with what a country can decide to do on it's own, inside their national water's boundry. It could be everything within 200 miles of a country's coastline, or some other defined distance. They would come under fire if a global species sole breeding ground was within that country's boundry. They would also come under fire if they were hunting a globally endangered species, or caught hunting outside their boundry.

This could also come down to the fact, that some whale species have increased their numbers and are no longer as threatened, even though their numbers are still low, somewhere there may be decisions being made, that we don't know about.

[Cassiepeia]

Haven't the Japanese been stopped from increasing their quota now? I thought I heard something about that.

Cass.

[Raised By Wolves]

How would these countries be "policed", and who would do it? There's lot of ocean out there...they would have to agree to comply, wouldn't they?

[linnie]

The heads of countrys had to vote for or against the killing of whales and even though the vote was against the Japanese, they say they will still do it and have even opened up a burger place in Japan that specialises in whale burgers.
I suppose as to policing such a thing that it would be like all the rest of the policing they do.

[sweetiewheatie]

I find it very disturbing that people would actually want to kill those big, beautiful Wales and gobble them up. I know that it's a cultural thing, but I still can't see why anybody would want to do such a thing.

[DaisySunshine]

Whales and Dolphins >
Minke Whale


Minke whale - Queensland, Australia
photo: WWF-Canon / Jürgen FREUND
Status: some populations abundant, some depleted
Total remaining:
northern minke: up to 204,000
southern minke: previously estimated around 760,000, but this is now considered inaccurate - no new estimate is yet available.

Although the smallest of the great whales, the minke may still reach 33 feet (with females tending to be larger than males) and exceed 10 tons. Minkes are distinguished by their very pointed heads; in fact, their scientific name - Balaenoptera - means "pointy snout." They are widely distributed from the tropics to polar waters in both hemispheres. The three populations in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Southern Hemisphere do not mix and may actually be separate subspecies.

This filter feeder's diet varies with location. In the Southern Hemisphere, it consists mostly of krill (small shrimp-like animals), while in the Northern Hemisphere the whales eat small fish (such as capelin, sand eel and sardines) as well as krill. Generally, minkes migrate between summer feeding grounds in polar waters and wintering grounds in warmer waters where calving takes place, but their migrations vary from year to year.

The calf will spend 10 months in the womb and up to six months nursing. The young minke whale will mature sexually after six to eight years and might live up to 40 or 50 years, although adult mortality rates are relatively high (around 9-10 percent per year).

Up until the 1930s, no one in the whaling industry bothered with minke whales because their larger relatives, such as finbacks and blues, were plentiful and brought a higher profit per catch. But when populations of the larger whales became seriously depleted, with several species close to extinction, attention turned to minkes. In 1949, Norway alone caught no fewer than 4,000 of this species. By the time the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on commercial whaling was passed in 1982, minkes were the most important species for whaling in both the North Atlantic and the Antarctic Oceans.

Even though minkes are not endangered and are now the most abundant of the great whales, their populations have been depleted by whaling in the North Atlantic and the western North Pacific, as well as in some parts of the Southern Ocean. At one time it was thought that minkes might increase in numbers in the Southern Hemisphere because they had increased amounts of food available after the decimation of the larger baleen whales, but there is no evidence that they have increased.

http://www.worldwildlife.org/cetacea...species_mw.cfm

Interesting reason for why the minke is such a popular whale to kill. It because all the other species have been depleted!! How nice....

My stand is there is no reason to kill any whale. Any product that whales once provided can now be made synthetically. As for wanting to eat whale meat...get over it. Depleting natural treasures like whales isn't worth a whale burger. Personally, I don't like the idea of eating something that may be more intelligent than myself.

Pardon me while I go chain myself to a harpoon.