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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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Whales aren't stupid. They beach themselves where there are cute Green babes in scuba gear carressing them and lots of TV coverage for the whale lobby. Their brains are much bigger than ours and they have lots of time for thinking as they abhor TV. My dog has similar tactics. The cetaceae should be called Cetus supersapiens a bit like Homo nonsapiens.
If a cow beached itself on your front drive and died of respiratory failure from collapsed lungs would you eat its decaying body? Would you race out with your knife and fork and some horseraddish (??cow raddish). Japanese like fresh flesh; the fresher the flesh the better...a bit like our Dr Zeus...preferably still mooing or whatever whales do. Some Asians like eating monkey brains while the monkey is still alive...cranium cut like a boiled egg while the monkey's head with body attached sits in a hole in the table for a degusting dégustation menu. But I suppose the French tubefeed geese for pâté de fois gras.

Now back to my tripe and onions for breakfast or has Penelope done the devilled kidneys and whale pancreas sause again?
Posted by Odysseus, Saturday, 16 July 2005 8:28:12 AM
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My front yard is not a beach but when farmers manage what must be regarded as the most successful species after Homosapiens, Sheep and cattle, they do take note of the age and health of an animal. Once an animals condition begins to decline due to age they are consigned to the food table. It was ever thus for the "tables" of wolves and other predators.

So how many whales die of old age each year? Do they suffer in the cold? Is it a slow, fearful, and protracted death, a shark bite here, an agonising escape, a brief hope, a gasp followed by a feeding frenzie? It is anthropomorphisim, true, but give me a quick, unsuspecting grenade harpoon any day.

It is essentially the same deal most of us make with our employer. We trade almost half of our awoken lives in exchange for comfort, security and certainty in reproduction. And like farmed animals, our infant mortality is lower, our life is easier and our death is quicker and often sooner than "free range humans".

It would seem that being part of the human food chain and being subject to human proprietorship is the one, absolutely certain path out of the threatened species list.
Posted by Perseus, Monday, 18 July 2005 11:40:10 AM
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It's too hard to tell the sex of a whale before it's harpooned, let alone find out its age! The Japanese know afterwards by chopping open the head and finding the otolith (an ear bone) which has rings like a tree. The Japanese manage to kill nursing mothers ( the calves are left to starve) so you want them to shoot just the old tough ones now? No chance.
Posted by Viking, Monday, 18 July 2005 3:52:22 PM
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The capacity to determine the age of whales by purely visual means prior to harvesting would be a very useful field for on-going research. I wonder if the Japanese are working on it?
Posted by Perseus, Wednesday, 20 July 2005 11:25:05 AM
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Since when does honest science have anything to do with pushing political agenda?

Rule number one in politics... distort and discard any information that does not support agenda.

Whales have been embued with a whole romantic nostalgia and its the pinnup boy of so called green politics. They are hardly going to use an ugly looking bug or frog thats on the endangered species list.

Anyway... Save the Rhino

and

there are bigger fish to fry in this world (pun intended).
Posted by trade215, Wednesday, 20 July 2005 11:51:16 AM
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MORE INFO RECEIVED

Hi Jennifer:
Latest information on the Faroe Islands pilot whale hunt, including killing methods is available at the following web sites.
www.whaling.fo
www.tinganes.fo

Hope this helps
Posted by Jennifer, Thursday, 21 July 2005 12:49:00 PM
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