It’s okay, Japan. Canada understands.
Just put your head on our shoulder and let it all out.
Ooh! Monkey-chops!
Are they hunting anything really endangered? If not, then it’s no big deal. And even if its endangered, very limited, controlled killing for solely cultural reasons is fine too. Even if the cultural reason is that of maintaining a historical diet.
Can you even prove that whales becoming extinct is a bad thing?
If they ever did, we could just clone more of them anyway.
Oh, really?
I’m not a particular fan of whale meat. It’s similar to fishy beef, iirc. A number of older Japanese I know think it’s great, though.
Obviously the Japanese aren’t seriously doing research that requires the killing of whales. However, they want to eat whales, and this is the only way they can do so. Is it a farce? Of course. But then again, so is the IWC. I’m sure there’s a reason why Japan, Norway, and Iceland haven’t quit… I just don’t know what it is.
It’s mostly Minke whales. As I posted above, it’s not on the endangered species list and the total world population is thought to be order of 1 million.
You know, we’ve never cloned any whales. Awfully nice of you to have a lot of faith in genetic engineers, but you’re supposed to have knowledge in science, not faith.
“Bad thing” is, of course, relative, but to your first question, the whalewatching industry alone is worth about $1.5 billion annually (cite) which leads me to ask, do you think people losing their jobs and livelihoods (including mine, so this is a little personal) is a bad thing? I haven’t even mentioned aesthetic concerns…
It’s an interesting cultural issue, since the slaughter of pretty intelligent mammals for food causes revulsion in Western culture, but is simply a part of life in many other cultures, including Japanese, Native American, Native Siberian.
The Big Freakin’ Probe comes to mind…
You do NOT want to be probed by whales. I don’t care what Gillian says.
Norway isn’t a Western culture? Or they just supply the Japanese, Native American, and Native Siberians with whale meat? What about Native Canadians? And besides the bunny huggers of the sea types, what type of people in Western cultures think killing non-endangered whales is that big of deal? :dubious:
Well, I don’t have a problem with it, but when I was younger, I ate some Reindeer meat in Ikea. (Tasted gamey, but good.) When I told my peers, I experienced near-universal disgust. Perhaps some species, regardless of rarity, are above reproach? 
Try this-Open the case of the computer (or the hood of your car), remove all the parts you’re not sure you need. Hit with a sledge hammer until they are unrecognizable. Now, close the machine up and turn it on.
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If they ever did, we could just clone more of them anyway.
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:rolleyes:
Sure, because there aren’t plenty of problems with cloning. Assuming we had a suitable dna sample and could be sure of healthy clone, where would we implant it? Rhino uterus? Not big enough. Hippo uterus? Nope. Elephant? Nope, still too small to gestate a whale embryo.
Re Research
Before this, Japan’s excuse was ‘The whales are eating too many fish. We’re actually protecting the environment.’
They’d feel the same way about cows, if Rudolph was a red-nosed Holstein.
Is there any evidence whales are more intelligent than cows, pigs, chicken, sheep and deer?
My use of “Western” culture was a little general, but Norway would certainly be an exception (I doubt there are many other Western cultures that are). I don’t know of anyone who would think Native Canadians fit under western culture - Canada is probably considered a “Western” culture because of its Western European roots, not its geographical location. “Native Americans” means “natives of the American continents” so that would include “Native Canadians” anyway.
Since reactions to eating whale meat are cultural, not scientific, it doesn’t matter how intelligent whales are relative to other species - just that they are perceived to be more intelligent than other mammals. Pigs are pretty darn smart in real life, but few people seem to appreciate that.
If you doubt that a lot of people in Western culture show revulsion at the idea of eating whale meat, just try feeding it to them.
I think Iceland counts as a Western nation as well. That means two out of three industrial nations currently engaged in commercial whaling are “Western” nations.
Also Americans didn’t hesitate to kill whales when they needed whale oil for their lamps and candles. (It’s always about the oil…)
I have an older copy of The Joy of Cooking that includes recipes for (frozen) whale meat. I’d like to give it a try.
My objections to whaling are scientific, but are not related to cetacean inteligence. It’s the number of threatened and endangered species that bug me.
I will never eat whale. It’s not kosher. If they find a whale species with scales that are visible to the naked eye, then maybe I’ll reconsider my position.
Well…animals don’t have bows, either. It’s just more difficult to shot an animal with an arrow (and there’s an higher risk that’s the animal will not be killed quickly than with a rifle, too…)
Mandating that whales should be only hunted with bows and arrows would probably significantly decrease the number of whaleburgers, though…
Of course. We would just have to put the embryos in…err…in sea dinosaur’s uteruses (after we cloned dinosaurs and genetically engineered them to give them an uterus, of course).
Then your understanding is incorrect. Just this morning I watched a TV show in which researchers took samples of whale by firing an arrow that penetrates about an inch into the skin and then bounces out, bringing with it a small sample of whale for analysis.