Endangered giants: know your whales, before they're all gone.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456973/html/nn1page1.stm

Seven species of whale are listed, with some info on each (click on the tabs at top). One of the species was only relatively recently recognized, and as always in descriptive biology, there's a little lingering disagreement on subspecies.

Only two species -- the humpback and blue -- are so endangered that even "scientific":eyes: whaling is not permitted. Four humpback whales per year can be taken by aboriginal subsistence whalers in St Vincent and the Grenadines. St. Vincent voted for repeal of the whaling ban: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5088132.stm
Japan is now saying that it will resume hunting humpbacks: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=57402&mesg_id=57402
All the large whales were hunted to near-extinction by the mid-20th century, with the blues being especially critical. Years of whaling bans have allowed the populations to recover to apparently sustainable levels, so now ... it's time to start killin' agin!! Actually, one thing you'll note from the site is that in most cases the surviving population is not known to any real precision, and may be little more than a guess--but that's good enough to resume hunting, in some eyes.

(The minke whale is described as the "most hunted whale on earth". But there's no data on smaller cetaceans, like the pilot whale, whose largest specimens are as large as small Minkes.)

grieving

raging



in solidarity....

The Kappamaki, a whaling research ship, was currently researching the question: How many whales can you catch in one week?

-- Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

And ten billion sushi dinners cry out for vengeance.

Haven't they also devastated the shark populations? They would catch sharks for "shark fin soup", hack off its fins and throw the dead or dying sharks back into the ocean.
I have read somewhere that they purposely catch and inhumanely kill schools of dolphins and/or porpoises.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/archive/2003/01/20/urbananimal.DTL

I believe the dolphin slaughter you are referring to is here: http://www.seashepherd.org/taiji/taiji.html (Got this from another DUer whose name I failed to note, but it's in one of the recent threads.)

how sad it would be if we caused the extinction of the largest animal that has ever lived on the earth.

One of my favorite nuggets of information, is that the Chatham Island Robin was saved from extinction even though it's population was down to 1 (one).

Let's hear it for pregnant females. Let's also hear it for Don Merton, a conservationist who won't take "extinct" for an answer.

Even the Japanese don't hunt Blues anymore. All we have to do now is get them to stop hunting the others....

Given the chance, nature recovers.

Edit: "Old Blue", last - and first - of the Chatham Island Black Robins

"know your cuts of meat")

public actually supports this.

Although according to the BBC, the 1986 ban hasn't been lifted; that requires a 3/4 majority. ("The International Whaling Commission meeting backed a resolution calling for the eventual return of commercial whaling by a majority of just one vote. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5093350.stm

Just how many of the millions of Japanest people get a slice of the 863 whales Japan killed in 2005? This isn't for the public; it's for a small number of people. (I would say "elite" but I remember reading (within the last year) that a Walmart-owned chain was selling whale meat in Japan)).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5080508.stm
Japan's government says its whaling fleet culled 863 whales last winter. The justification was science. <snip>
Masayuki Komatsu is the executive director of the government-funded Marine Fisheries Research and Development Department. Like many supporters of whaling he gives two main reasons for the cull. "Whale is abundant," he says. "The number of fish is falling while the number of whales is rising. Surely the rapid increase in the whale population influences the level of the fish stocks? We need to know more about it."

Secondly he cites culture and tradition. "Whaling has been conducted in Japan for more than 400 years to provide whale meat on a sustainable basis," he says.
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At least 95% of the Japanese don't give a shit about whalemeat - from what I've heard, it tastes like shit - most of the catch winds up in pet food. The problem is, that there are a (very) few vocal politicians/politicrats who insist that that the "clampdown" of "foreign governments" on their "traditional culture" is a threat to Japanese identity.

It's total bollocks, of course: the "traditional culture" of whale-hunting is largely a myth invented by the whaling companies, and if the fucking Japanese would leave the whales alone they could do what they like: but most of the (voting) population are apathetic to the issue, so it carries on...

... "Well, it's obvious that two bombs weren't enough."

Here's hoping that Sea Shepherd will sink a few of the bastards.

Evidently the Beeb aren't relying on half-remembered newspaper articles.... :D

I can not read about the killing od these animals