Japan announces intent to defy court order to stop "sci

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when will mankind learn?

You seem to be selectively ignoring certain information. From that same page.

Last edited by Max000 on 23 Apr 2014, 4:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Right. You have to understand that whaling has been a part of their culture like fox hunting for the Brits and bull fighting for the Spanish.
The question is, now the Norway has beaten Japan in Whale killing, would Sea Shepherd go after them in the show?
What do you think of the things Paul Watson saying about the Japanese? You agree with him and support him?

Twenty twelve was apparently a fluke (no pun intended) because all the websites show that since 2008 Japan has killed twice as many whales as Norway, and has done half of the whale kills in the world.

The sea shephards have had Black crew members, and had a Japanese girl as a translator in one season.

They also did an episode devoted to their exploits interfering with the annual pilot whale slaughter in the Faroes Islands north of Scotland (populated by the extremely White descendents of norse vikings). So the Sea Shephards are nothing if not equal opportunity hooligans!

I think it is more of a practical thing: many of the Sea Shepherd people are Europeans, they will probably get extradited to Norway if they mess with their ships. The audience of their crappy reality show is probably largely American and European too.
And tradition is a very weak argument to continue doing something. Many traditions are holding us back. Especially bullfighting is ridiculous and needs to go. If it were up to me the EU would ban it for all member states, like they have done for the death penalty.

Give me the links to all those websites. I'm having a hard time finding the exact yearly statistics of each country.

Tradition is quite important. Take away tradition and you take away constraints and influences on behavior considered important in country, region, group, ... . It is a very important part of herd mentality.

As for bullfighting, I would really like to see a bullfight. I don't have any idea how I would react to it. I might hate it. I might like it. I might be bored. I might be disgusted.

if it were your pet bull [let's say you named it "Ferdinand"] would you enjoy seeing it get gored?

Pet cattle aren't used in bull fights.

We used to have a pet steer at the house. Out of a load of cattle we bought once, one of the steers was clearly someone's pet. My niece kind of adopted the steer and that steer would follow her around almost like it was a pet dog. She named the steer Cutie Pie. When we sold the other cattle, we kept that steer back.

It was kind of funny to see an enormous steer following her around like the pet it was. When her little friends from school would come out, the sight of that steer would scare them, but for her, it wasn't much different than a poodle. Just a bit overgrown.

We kept that steer around until it was pretty old. When it was clearly starting to go downhill, we had it butchered and the meat ground into hamburger and donated the meat to the local food pantry.

I remember that book from elementary school!

I know this is a controversial opinion, but I think that as long as it's done in a sustainable manner, and no endangered species are being killed, I don't see what's wrong with harvesting a whale or two. Sustainability is the key thing however, and if whales are being killed left and right with no regard for things like their species, their population numbers, or anything else like that, then I have a problem.

I think Japan is being quite dishonest with its whaling program, and I also think that they're being wasteful with a lot of the whales they are harvesting. I think if they were to fess up, and honestly admit that they just want to harvest whales for food, then maybe some better regulations would be put in place that would allow them to harvest say a few non-endangered whales a year for food, but no more.

As for how the whales themselves are actually killed and harvested, surely an exploding harpoon to the head isn't all that different than the captive bolt guns they use on cattle. As long as they aren't being tortured or killed in a slow, painful manner, I don't see the issue.

I agree with and support Paul Watson. Also whaling is not a significant part of their culture. Only a small percentage of Japanese even eat whale. It's just a special business interest in Japan. Calling whaling part of Japanese culture, is like calling oil part of American culture. It's not culture, it's a business.

American culture IS business [also]. if only the Japanese whaling business model could be transformed instead into a touristy "see the whales" conservation model or something along those lines.

I stumbled upon something called "the Whaling Library" and its "whaling statistics". Sorry I'm not more facil with posting links. Just google "the Whaling Library".

Its an interesting, but odd site. It gives you as many questions as answers!

You can click any year from 1910 onward and it will show a table divided by whale species, and by nation. But if you click 2011 it only gives you 2010. But thats still recent.

Actually it gives you two tables: one for the North Pacific, and one for the Antarctic.

It classifies the type of "operation". Whale kills by the USA, the USSR, and Denmark (really Greenland) are all classed as "aboriginal subsistence" (ie tribal folks are allowed some leeway). Japan is called "special permit". Some countries' kills are called "under objection" ( dont know what that means. Do they mean OVER the objections of the IWC?).

What puzzles me about the Whaling Library site is that it divides the whaling world into just two oceans: the Antarctic, and the North Pacific. Yet they give stats on what Greenland Eskimos kill in their own local waters (which are the Atlantic) . I guess it must be a whaling industry convention to divide the world's oceans into just two fisheries (with the atlantic lumped in with the antarctic).

I respectfully disagree with the statement that whaling is not a significant part of their culture.

Whaling is certainly a part of Japanese culture. The consumption of whale in Japan is thought to have gone on for as long as 14,000 years, pretty much since the beginning of the Holocene.

Whaling has reportedly gone on in Japan since the 1570s. What changed in the 20th century was the capability of traveling further and further from Japan for the whales.

The keyword there is "significant". What does it mean for something to be a "significant" part of their culture? Does that mean that great numbers of people must be involved? I hardly think so. By that approach, it would be wrong to say that cattle ranching is not a significant part of Texas culture since the vast majority of Texans have never been involved in ranching.

If for something to be "significant" it has to be widely spread in the culture, then I guess we have almost no culture in the US with the possible exception of some sports and watching tv.

Also, keep in mind that for some time after World War II, whaling was important in Japan in order to feed their population. That, I think, would certain make it a significant part of their culture if it had not already been significant.

So you agree with Paul Watson when he says;
"Japan has always closely identified with blood and slaughter. From the decapitations by the Samurai upon innocent peasants to the suicidal insanity of the Kamikaze, violence and self destruction have been a part of Japanese culture."

Noted.

As for the rest, I did not say it is a BIG part of their culture. Just like fox hunting and bull fighting which only a small number of people participate, it's definitely a part of their culture albeit a small one.