IMHO I think the hunting of whales in this day and age is barbaric. Isn't it against international law? Either way they should be boarded and arrested.Padman said:Well it was a Green Party suggestion, you know the folk who were so anti the frigate purchase in the first place. Now they want to send a frigate into the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary to "monitor" the Japanese whaling fleet. Gee, might that not encourage the Japanese govt to send one of their Aegis destroyers to "monitor" Davenport?
Whaling in Japan is of political importance, because it's got its own bureaucracy, trying to protect their jobs, & a few Diet members from fishing ports which run the last few whalers. It's basically a scam, a way to extract taxpayers money to pay a lot of bureaucrats to market whale meat, promote uses for whale products, handle the subsidies to the few, immensely loss-making, whaling ships, & cajole small, poor countries into joining the IWC & backing Japan. Even the relatively few whales they kill for "scientific research" mostly can't be sold, due to lack of demand. Nobody wants to buy the meat, the oil, or anything else. Whale meat is "hunger food" in Japan. My (Japanese) partner turns up her nose at the very thought of it - and she's typical.KH-12 said:They just see them as big fish, apparently whale meat was only consummed by a very small part of the Japanese population prior to the 2nd World War (some small coastal village communities, and never on a commercial basis like the West), it was the Americans who supported a move towards commercial whaling to supply a cheap and plentiful supply of protein to a Japan ravaged by war, and now look what has happened
New Zealand did commercial whale up until the 1960's.
It's considered a delicacy in Japan. I tried some when I was on a business trip in March. It is okay but has a really foul aroma and a bad aftertaste.Big-E said:
The sort of delicacy 99% of Japanese won't touch with a bargepole. It's somewhat like tripe in the UK: something formerly eaten by the poor, because they couldn't afford anything better, now shunned by most people because it tastes bad & has connotations of poverty & hunger, but sought out by a few for reasons of nostalgia or curiousity.Jtimes2 said:
Unfortunately the sticky wicket is Japans pretty much Aus and NZs biggest trading partner, Im all for the exclusion zone but whe can't pi** the Japanese to much, we could give the Norwegians a bit more hell though, the other member of the Whaling Axis of Evil:gunPadman said:
Yeah, it could almost go down that track. Except that I don't think most NZers would want to risk trade links with one of our chief export markets, even though I would think most of us would oppose whaling. Though talking with many friends I have noticed the issue has highlighted how little NZ can do to protect its own backyard.KH-12 said:
Although the French were detonating nuclear weapons in the atmosphere resulting in radioactive drift over international waters (not to mention detonating nukes in geologically unstable coral atollsPadman said:
), a bit of a different tone to protecting a whale in international waters, the best defence would be to supply video of suffering whales dying to international news media. It all depends on the mood of the international community the early 70's was a very antinuclear period, do the whales have the emotional support at that level ?
, would of been justified after the blatant act of war that the French comitted by blowing up the 'Warrior in Auckland Harbour:rel
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