quinch on 21/11/2007 at 16:08
Being intelligent enough to not have to set up charities to protect your own young.
Gillie on 21/11/2007 at 17:56
Quote Posted by Kuuso
I hate it when people use some adjective like cute or majestic (or any other useless one) and state it as a reason to preserve animals. Whales being majestic or not doesn't matter, they're still animals. Anywaysm a far bigger problem at the moment is the overfishing of tuna. Now, driving them near extinction is gonna have a
way bigger effect on the sealife than whales.
Of course, hunting whales for culinary needs is a bit silly, but only if their numbers are not healthy. If there's good population of whales around, I see no reason why they couldn't be hunted like any other animal.
You did not read what I said. That statement says it all!
True I said they are majestic. They are and highly intelligent warm blooded mammals. The idiots are the ones hunting them. For no known reason. They are feeling so guilty they have "Research" on their ships??
I also said I felt the same about any creature or cod fish which was endangered. We do not NEED to hunt whales to survive as humans in any form what so ever.
True hunting fish upsets the balance of nature and the food chain. That is human greed nothing else,which has made them so scarce.
What gives them the right to hunt them to almost extinction which they are doing by looking for humpbacks. Who have no enemy's other wise. Most species live on plant life.
Die a slow painful death by fucking idiots. (I do not usually swear either) many with calves.
Quote Posted by SD
Some people would argue that cetaceans, irrespective of numbers (and none of them are particularly numerous, incidentally) are beings possessed of considerable intelligence, and that this should guarantee them basic rights, such as the right not to be brutally slaughtered by demented fuckwits.
You ars spot on there!!.
Kuuso on 21/11/2007 at 21:49
Quote Posted by Gillie
You did not read what I said. That statement says it all!
True I said they are majestic. They are and highly intelligent warm blooded mammals. The idiots are the ones hunting them. For no known reason. They are feeling so guilty they have "Research" on their ships??
I also said I felt the same about any creature or cod fish which was endangered. We do not NEED to hunt whales to survive as humans in any form what so ever.
True hunting fish upsets the balance of nature and the food chain. That is human greed nothing else,which has made them so scarce.
What gives them the right to hunt them to almost extinction which they are doing by looking for humpbacks. Who have no enemy's other wise. Most species live on plant life.
Die a slow painful death by fucking idiots. (I do not usually swear either) many with calves.
You ars spot on there!!.
I wasn't directly referring to your post (but looking back now, It definately might seem like that, sorry for that), more of trying to air my dismay against the "but they're cute!" factor some people have.
As I see it, there's not enough difference between a whale and tuna to warrant for other's hunting, while the other enjoys safety. Intelligence is not a factor, when I look at animals, which are used as food. I am not sure where I draw the line on this though. I would not eat human flesh, unless it was already dead and my life was dependant on it. Would I eat monkey flesh? Don't know. They're quite smart and have human-like emotions and small group societies, but there's something they don't grasp that differs them from humans. Remember that we wouldn't actually NEED to hunt anything to survive...
I do not think it's guilt that leads these japanese to paint "RESEARCH" on their ship. It's to validate their actions legally.
Starrfall on 21/11/2007 at 22:33
I wonder if these researches have produced any research at all or if they're not even trying.
I mean aside from "Minke tenderloin is well suited for grilling, but the shoulder should be braised slowly over low heat otherwise it will be tough. Whale is best paired with a bold cabernet sauvignon to cut the high fat content. Try something from Argentina."
Anyways I think one of the worries about whales is that they're relatively slow reproducers, so a couple of bad years could do some serious population damage.
demagogue on 22/11/2007 at 00:26
Quote Posted by Starrfall
I wonder if these researches have produced any research at all or if they're not even trying.
Well, that's one of the ironic parts of the Japanese argument. The research is on whether these whales can be sustainably caught and the population kept level; they watch the population as they gradually increase the catch.
But yeah, it gets a lot of criticism that there are probably better ways to do that than actually have to catch them, and there are so many variables that it's not clear they even
can pay attention to all the things they need to, to say nothing that there's a stupendous conflict of interest involved in what results they get ... they don't exactly inspire the most trust.
I think Kuuso is right, though, the primary reason is just to keep their actions formally legal to give a space for politics to work itself out in the meantime, where the real resolution will come from.
Gillie on 22/11/2007 at 00:49
The Japanese are just using "Scientific purposes" as an excuse.
They know that.. Humpbacks are nearly wiped out. Everything the whalers find out from harpooning whales can be learned by non-lethal means.
(
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2882018.ece)
Japan has used a loophole in the two-decade international moratorium on commercial whaling that allows the killing of whales for research – although it makes no secret that the meat ends up on Japanese dinner plates. This year, for the first time, it plans to kill 50 humpbacks and 50 fin whales, as well as hundreds of minke whales, arguing that levels of both whales have recovered enough to allow them to withstand hunting.
(
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/whaling/catching-whales-for-science-is)
Gingerbread Man on 22/11/2007 at 02:57
will somebody please operationalise "intelligence" if they're going to wobble off into "whales are smart" land tia
PigLick on 22/11/2007 at 12:33
whales obviously arent that smart
