Don’t hand me this shit about it being a traditional food for Icelanders, and therefore, for reasons of cultural preservation they should be allowed to do it. Cannabalism was part of the culture of certain New Guinea tribes, but that doesn’t mean it was a good idea. In India, it used to be tradition that the wife be buried with her husband when he died. Of course, she wasn’t dead when they buried her, so I can’t imagine that it was a fun time.
“Oh, but come on, whales are plentiful where they’re hunting them, and we can manage wildlife successfully, we do it all the time.” you say. Horseshit. Whales have tons of problems without having to deal with whalers as well. Commercial shipping traffic has turned the once quiet ocean into a very noisy place (not to mention all the crap that gets dumped into the ocean), which puts whales at risk. The Navy wants to use a massive sonar system which could potentially deafen whales, and we’ve got really bad luck in managing fishing stocks from what I understand. According to one estimate I’ve heard, within fifteen years all edible fish will be gone from the oceans. Nice thought, huh? No more Charlie fuckin’ Tuna for you!
And, no, I really don’t like the idea that some groups like the Inuit are still allowed to hunt whales. Like the Icelanders, they claim that it’s a cultural thing, but for some reason, they don’t seem to have a problem using modern things like outboard motors and modern weapons in the hunt.
“Oooh, but it’s soooo tasty!” you say. “I lurve me some whale meat, so I should be allowed to take it. I promise not to take too many.” Riiiiiight. We don’t understand a helluvalot about whales and their reproductive cycles. We’re not really certain why numbers of whales haven’t dramatically increased since whaling was halted, and the fucking Icelanders don’t care, they just want their McBlubber sandwiches. Well, fuck you, fuck you and your rock encrusted, half frozen island. I hope your collective asses choke on a whale bone.
I know I’m not supposed to ask in the Pit, but do you have a cite for this? I love seafood, and this scares the bejeesus out of me.
While we’re giving the one-fingered (or two, depending on your custom) salute to Iceland, how about a great big FUCK YOU to Norway and Japan?
*"Japan brings in the world’s largest catch of whales under the guise of “scientific research,” and in recent years those numbers have been creeping up. This year’s catch is expected to reach 2,400, while Japan and Norway plan to kill 3,215 in 2008.
Each country maintains that whale numbers have increased sufficiently to support the number they kill.
Environmental groups however have been particularly concerned by the decision of Japan to extend its hunt to fin, sperm and humpback whales, the latter being one of the most endangered species."*
Their numbers have increased sufficiently to sustain 5000 kills annually?? That’s awfully goddamned hard to believe.
[slight hijack]And not to throw any water on the hellfire and brimstone, but I’ve been dying to tell someone this - a bald eagle was spotted a quarter-mile from my house last week, and I have two red-tailed hawks nesting in the woods on my property. So there is hope, as long as we don’t act all stupid and shit.
(I’m especially happy about the eagle, since it was spotted on land that was about to be cleared for yet another motherfucking subdivision. I hope the rug gets yanked out from under it.)[/hijack]
I can’t find anything which specifically states they’ll be wiped out in 15 years (and I can’t remember what podcast I heard that on), but googling fish+extinction yields about 6 million results and none of them are pretty. A quick sampling of them (some going back to 2001):
In the interests of accuracy, Hindus in India don’t bury their dead; they cremate them. So the wife burned to death on her husband’s funeral pyre. It probably wasn’t fun at all, no.
The practice, called sati, was not exactly common even way back when. Mostly, these incidents happened in specific communities that interpreted the stridharma a little too harshly, seeing the role of a woman in society as a wife and nothing but.
Sati was outlawed in India during the British occupation sometime around 1830 (?) thanks to the work of Raja Rammohan Roy, a progressive thinker.
The practice has a truly fascinating, albeit hideous, history.
While I don’t doubt the cremation story, I distinctly recall reading in one of Joseph Campbell’s books an account in India of a wife being buried alive, complete with a vivid description of her holding her hand on her face and tracing a circular pattern around one of her eyes in the manner proscribed by ritual. So, I’m guessing that she must not have been Hindu.
"A major study in Nature last month reported that 90 percent of large, predatory fish populations, including tuna and marlin, have disappeared, mostly due to over-fishing and destructive fishing methods. Other threats, such as coastal development, pollution, and climate change, are also devastating marine life.
“It’s stunning to consider that in the past few decades, we have done away with the vast majority of large fish in the ocean and significantly altered the way marine systems operate…”
Mother Jones did a whole series of articles about overfishing
Not being at all proud of the practice - we tore down the local whaling station in 1932 and now it’s a blot on the common conscience, kinda like Quisling - but I still feel obliged to point out a little bright point on Norway’s record. While our quota runs a bit over a thousand whales, only between 50 and 80% of those are actually taken. For instance, this year’s quota was 1052 animals, but so far they have only taken 527. (Expected to rise, of course) Comparing it to before the law - when we caught 2000 minke whales alone, each year - and, well, it has improved. Sadly not enough.
In seriousness, I’ve read that one of the big problems with our pumping so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is that much of it ends up getting absorbed by the ocean, which makes the ocean more acidic, which is supposed to be bad for marine life … presumably including whales. Hopefully somebody else knows more details.
