Iceland begins commercial whaling

[LeftyMom]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6059564.stm

(warning: dead whale pictured at link)

Iceland begins commercial whaling
By Richard Black
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website

Iceland has announced it is to resume commercial hunting of whales.

Icelandic ships will take nine fin whales, an endangered species, and 30 minke whales each year.

In a statement, the fisheries ministry said the nation was dependent on living marine resources, and would keep catches within sustainable limits.

Norway is the only other country to hunt commercially; most are bound by a 20-year moratorium. Currently Iceland hunts minkes for "scientific research".

...

The announcement has angered conservation groups and anti-whaling nations, with some talking of a legal challenge. (more at link)

[flvegan]

1. How soon they forget...

Reason #1 to never travel to Iceland, nor cruise on a ship that sails under the flag of Iceland...illegal whaling.

[ozone_man]

2. That rules Iceland out

on any of my future plans. Norway and Japan too.

[LivingInTheBubble]

19. Its disgusting,

Though I believe Norway catch Minke whales which are not threatened, at that point you have to decide why it is ok to eat one animal and not others.

[LeftyMom]

21. Minke whales are protected by international law

They are a CITES listed species, as are all of the great whales and some members of class dolphindae. They are also covered by the IEC commercial whaling ban, to which Iceland did not formally object at the appropriate time. Norway did, which is why they have commercial whaling with no sanctions or other consequences.

I don't know about the dietary habits of the person you're posting to, but several posters on this thread, myself included, don't eat animal flesh or derivatives of any sort. I would agree that it's not okay to eat one animal and not others, which is why I don't eat any. Still, whales are slow to reproduce, the ocean ecosystems are badly out of balance and whale flesh is intensely polluted, so there's a very good argument based only in ecology and human health why those who haven't got a problem with flesh consumption should avoid eating whale as well as other animals high on oceanic food chains such as shark and tuna.

[LivingInTheBubble]

22. I didnt know about the bans, my bad.

[LeftyMom]

23. No problem, that's why we discuss things.

:)

[LeftyMom]

3. I have only one thing to say about that:

I am all for the involuntary conversion of whaling vessels to arteficial reefs! :woohoo:

[flvegan]

5. It's all about the petcocks...

and I'm not talking about companion chickens, either.

[LeftyMom]

17. Of course dear.

:)

[The Stranger]

11. That makes two of us. The sooner the better.

Fight on.

[OneBlueSky]

4. whaling is a barbaric enterprise . . . whales are sentient beings . . .

with more intelligence than most humans I know . . .

then again, humans don't seem to mind killing other humans by the tens of thousands, either . . .

[The2ndWheel]

6. I'd say it's a quite civilized enterprise myself

What human could go whaling without the help of a civilized way of life?

[flvegan]

9. I guess one could replace

"go whaling" with "bombing the shit out of Iraq" and it'd be about the same, yes?

[The2ndWheel]

20. Absolutely

What else would the good civilized people at the Pentagon and DARPA do other than to find new and creative ways to kill people?

[Coventina]

7. I hope to hear Bjork speak out against this.

I can't think of any other prominent Icelander.

I'm beyond disgusted.

Fuck whalers. To Davy Jones' locker with all of 'em.

[sofa king]

8. This is all about the Japanese.

From what I understand, whale meat is not an easily acquired taste, but it has a status similar to caviar in Japan. Both Norway and Iceland are whaling primarily because there is a fantastic and high-paying market for whale meat in Japan.

The only real way to stop the whaling is to get the damned Japanese to stop eating them. Virtually nobody else does.

[flvegan]

10. Actually, it's not, sort of...

From Sea Shepherd:

Why does Iceland continue to kill whales?

"They do it in a pathetic attempt to hold onto the past so that they can continue to identify with their bloody legacy of whaling," said Captain Paul Watson. "It is a blood sport to them and a way of indulging in the sadistic pleasure of killing whales and thumbing their noses at other nations. Killing whales is the pursuit of little people with small minds with a lust to destroy creatures more intelligent and more beautiful than themselves."

and

Iceland also has no economic justification for whaling. In 2004, only a quarter of the whale meat taken was sold. Iceland presently has 40 tons of unsold whale meat from the 2003 and 2004 whale killings in industrial freezers.

http://www.seashepherd.org/whales/whales_world_Iceland.html

[LeftyMom]

12. And Japan has a shit-ton of whale meat on ice too

It exceeds demand so much they're making it into dog food.

[sofa king]

14. I'd like to see more on that.

Do you have a reference?

[LeftyMom]

16. but of course

dog food: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1567589.htm

Japan using whale meat for dog food: report

Japan's stock of whale meat from hunting for scientific research is so large that the country has begun selling it as dog food, a leading marine conservation organisation says.

British-based charity the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) says Japan's whale meat stocks had doubled over the past 10 years as it increased the number of animals it killed every year, despite a global ban on commercial hunting.

"Whaling is a cruel activity and the fact that Japan is killing these amazing animals to produce dog food is shocking," WDCS science director Mark Simmonds said.

"We have heard many arguments from Japan over the years about why whaling is necessary to them but they have never stated that they needed to kill whales to feed their dogs."

school lunches and other attempts to increase low demand for whale meat: http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Whale-on-Japans-school-lunch-menu/2005/05/20/1116533538378.html

The meat savoured by schoolchildren is a byproduct that should not go to waste, they argue.

Whaling has deep cultural roots. But research, never widely aired in Japan, casts doubt on claims about centuries-old whaling traditions.

Some research says that whale meat was eaten by large numbers of people only in desperate days after World War II and that its popularity faded about 10 years later.

"In fact, even in the early 20th century, some people in northern Japan resisted killing whales," Dr Keiko Hirata wrote in the Social Science Journal of Japan.

[flvegan]

18. From June 2005, WaPo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061800890.html

[sofa king]

13. I think IWC is preventing the sale of that meat to Japan.

At least they were back when I was going to American pre-IWC conference meetings back around the turn of the millenium. But with the total breakdown of the International Whaling Commission imminent, there will no longer be any restrictions on that sale and Japan will snap it all up as soon as they can get it, at a premium.

[LeftyMom]

15. Will they buy that much?

I'm not so sure. Probably they'll buy some for the same reason they kill so many whales, to assert that they can, but there's already more supply than demand, even with subsidized whale in school lunches and whatnot.

Funny thing, whale was a big part of the plan to keep the Japanese population from starving to death after WWII, so it's kinda associated with that time and seen as old fashioned and a food associated with scarcity.

[NobleCynic]

24. To be fair...

what else does Iceland have? Well, other than Bjork.

In all seriousness though, it is quite reprehensible.

[PinkyisBlue]

25. This is very sad.

Human beings won't be satisfied until they have killed off every species on earth (including themselves).