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The Forum > Article Comments > No science and no respect in Australia's anti-whaling campaign > Comments

No science and no respect in Australia's anti-whaling campaign : Comments

By Jennifer Marohasy, published 7/7/2005

Jennifer Marohasy argues Australians need less emotion and more science when it comes to whaling.

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Perseus, the Japanese have no history of whale hunting, except on a small scale in their local waters. "A whaling history as long as the Norwegians" is nonsense. They have a long history of chasing dolphins into shallow lagoons and bashing them to death, but whales, not really. The Japanese started eating whales (largely caught by others) after WWII when they had no other meat. The whales had been left alone a bit during the war because the whaling fleet was needed elsewhere or was sunk in enemy actions.

After the war the Russians (who had also not been much of a whaling nation) also got into the act and the savagery really started. It is still not lknown whether Blue Whales, as a species, will survive; there are so few left (in the hundreds). So I don't trust the Japanese (or the Russians, for that matter) to abide by quotas and agreements. Nordic peoples have been sustainably taking whales for centuries, and while I would like them to stop, I can't see it happening. I'd like "primitive" people to stop too but they have their rights. The Inuit have the right to take a handful of Bow Whales (also nearly wiped out as a species) in the Bering Strait every year, if they didn't have an imposed quota they'd probably take many more as they use "non-primitive" methods and artifacts.
Posted by Viking, Monday, 11 July 2005 4:13:43 PM
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Yes, bitter and twisted after that big white whale bit off me leg...plays us in our bitterly cold Qld winters.

We Greeks called some whales, "Right Whales" as they behaved themselves post mortem and floated. They were also just the right size for sushi and Norwegian Osloburgers, and women loved covering themselves in whale vomit as male Vikings found it so alluring...a way to find Mr Right while sporting the latest whalebone corsettes...

Now where is that scrimshaw I was trying to finish. We must preserve the Sperm Whale as they make great scrimshaws and have fantastic spemacetti which Chanel love for their Chanel 5... or is it 19...
What a sexy name for a whale.
Posted by Odysseus, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 9:52:56 AM
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Yesterday I received an email from an international whaling expert and delegate to IWC meetings with the following comments on my article:

"Three comments on your on line opinion piece:

1) During this year's meeting of the Scientific Committee there was discussion of the quota for humpback whales taken in the Grenadines. The Scientific Committee agreed that the catch limit of 20 for the period 2003-2007 set by the Commission will not harm the stock which was estimated to number around 10,750 animals in 1992. See page 19 of IWC/57/REP 1 http://www.iwcoffice.org/meetings/reports2005.htm (A new abundance estimate for this stock is expected by 2007 but clearly, the IUCN listing is outdated and incorrect).

2) Your description of the method used by Faroese fishermen to kill pilot whales is outdated and inaccurate. I will send you an updated description of the killing method used and a reference when I am in my office next week.

3) Your comment that "perhaps also the Japanese [and Australian], governments could learn from the reasoned and scientific approach taken by the Norwegians" misses the point that in addition to meeting the four principles of the Norwegian harvesting, the take of whales under the special permits for research issued by the Government of Japan also provides valuable scientific information."
Posted by Jennifer, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 9:11:49 AM
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You are missing the point, Jennifer. Maybe whales are just off limits for all time. They should be a protected species. I don't think killing these animals is any better than clear-felling Huon Pines 1200 years old. Why don't we start eating people. There are plenty of us and historical precidents for it...even in our life time.
Now where's my scrimshaw..
Posted by Odysseus, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 10:14:22 AM
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Jennifer,
This person sounds like a Japanese, if he thinks the whale take is "scientific". They reckon they're great scientists, killing a huge animal to get its otolith (ear bone) which tells them the animal's age at death. Wow! Just imagine the outcry if the Chinese started killing pandas to get their otoliths to find out how old the animals WERE. There are other methods available which don't kill the animals, but guess what, there's no meat if you don't kill the whale!
Posted by Viking, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 10:35:10 AM
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So can anyone advise what the annual world wide total of whale deaths from beachings etc is? Surely this would be well in excess of the annual kill. And while the official history of commercial whaling may not register much in relation to Japanese activity prior to WWII, are we really expected to believe that pre-meiji coastal communities that routinely gathered to herd dolphins ashore for food were incapable of making the short intellectual jump to eating the regular pods of beached whales.

Or is it now an article of faith in the green community that whales only beach themselves in countries where they will be met by fawning, self promoting publicity seekers?
Posted by Perseus, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 12:06:11 PM
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