Whale meat tastes disgusting, with the all the delicate flavour and texture of old work boots marinated in cod liver oil: if it was cheap and plentiful, no-one would eat the shit.
In Fluke, Christopher Moore has the main character tell another character that the Japanese government has introduced a program to serve whale meat in the public schools, to give schoolchildren a taste for the meat so they’ll support the whaling industry when they grow up. I don’t know if it’s true, but I assume so because he did say that the whale/whaling facts and figures in the story were true.
I always wondered why a program like this would be necessary; if the meat actually tasted good, wouldn’t people be clamoring after it anyway? Without having to get them used to it in elementary school?
And frankly, my school lunches weren’t terrible, but they weren’t exactly great either. I’d think this program would cause people to associate whale meat with bad memories of low-quality school cafeteria food and cause them to avoid it.
I can’t find the thread, but there was a Norwegian Doper who admitted to eating whale and liking it.
Sounds like a UL to me: that stuff’s expensive. My wife used to get served whale back in Japanese primary school in the early 70’s, when it was still cheap and plentiful there - cheaper than beef, back then - and yeah, she hates it because of the association with nasty school lunches.
I’ll admit to having eaten whale.
Nope. IIRC, it was here in the Pit.
I’m an American who ate a whale steak in Norway in the mid-80s, and I don’t remember it being too bad. Better than a lot of what I ate in France, in fact.
Good for Iceland. It’s about time someone put that uppity planet in its place!
Marc
Gah.
Try an experiment yourself.
Put three coins on your desk, and only three coins.
Pick them all up.
How may are left on the desk?
None. Nada. Zip. All gone.
Now envision a planet where everyone who wants a coin is encouraged to remove one from the desk, and although we see them doing so, no one is stopping them.
There is not an unlimited supply of coins.
We’ve already seen some of the most valuable coins disappear. Poor value coins like pennies remain, but people are grabbing them off your desk like they’re going out of style.
PS: An implacable supervillain known as Famine will enter the room and kill you the moment there are no more coins on the desk.
Sit on your hands. Whistle. There go more coins. Fewer, always fewer.
Wait, wait…wait some more…almost gone…
Sailboat
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan 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.[/QUOTE]
Hah. We DO understand a fair amount about North Sea cod and their reproductive cycles, and we’re fairly certain why their numbers are continuing to fall. The scientists who are supposed to set government policy on this have advised a total ban on catching it for 2007 and 2008, as they have recommended every year since 2001. Reproductive adult cod stocks are now down to about 31,000 tons. What was the quota set last year? 23,000 tons.
The icelanders might be risking the future of the whales, but at least there’s a modicum of uncertainty. North Sea cod is going the way of the dodo, everyone know about it, and no-one seems to give a shit. Ditto for tuna and so on. Whales get a lot of media attention but I think the systematic strip-mining of fish species is a much bigger issue.
I didn’t know about it. And I give a shit. That’s depressing. Are you going to tell me next that cracker crumbs and lemons are going extinct? 'Cause life just won’t be worth living then.
I agree with the outrage of the OP, but I have one anecdotal observation.
I occasionally go on whale watches in the North Atlantic, and by my observation, fin whales outnumber all other whales combined by about 7:1. I don’t have an accurate count, but I’d bet I’ve seen a good 20 fins. One each of humpbacks, rights, and minkes.
Just in case you thought I was serious, that was a quote from South Park. It’s the episode titled “Weight Gain 4000”.
And people still give the Koreans shit for eating dogmeat.
I don’t get all the doom and gloom going on in this thread.
It’s obvious to me that Iceland is doing the world a favor. By taking out the whales, it counteracts the rising of the ocean levels caused by global warming. Those mega-ton monstrosities displace a lot of water with their weight. If we took out all the whales, the water levels would drop so much that we wouldn’t have to worry about melting glaciers anymore. That’s the goal Iceland is trying to achieve. They just have a hard time articulating it.
… and? How was it? :dubious:
Oh, all right then. I suppose we can downgrade your ‘fuck you’ to a ‘dang you all to heck’.
And (in the US) we seem to be trying to outlaw the consumption of horsemeat.
Whales have a lot of mass, right?
It takes one of those exploding harpoons to destroy a whale?
Weapons of mass destruction!!!
Ooh, George is gonna kick some Icelandic ass!
Have you considered that maybe the fin whales just surface more often?
I think you’re right. I quit buying fish a long time ago, and I keep telling my friends and relatives about it since no one knows, but I’m not sure what else I can do. Any ideas? I will use them.