mhaze it often amazes me how we get all bent out of shape about whales, or even koalas for that matter, yet those who care so much about these and other animals, rarely seem to spare a thought about our homeless folk.

While i dont support whale hunting, and thats what this is, i feel there are far more important issues that deserve the funding, but as usual, i guess its a case of the squeaky wheel.

Paul,

You have some weird friends. Also, you are an ecological vandal: giant pandas are Endangered and white Rhinos, according to wikipedia, are Near Threatened. I'd have thought they'd be Vulnerable at least, but there you go. Some good news for a change. Shame about the black rhino. The dodo, of course, is Extinct and has been for many moons. I wouldn't shed too many tears for him; extinction is a part of life. Lots of creatures have come and gone, and man in his time will go the way of the dodo.

As it turns out, a lot of whale species are Least Concern. From a conservation perspective, there is absolutely no reason not to hunt them. From an ethical perspective, the animal cruelty involved in harpooning whales is a good reason not to hunt them. But it is just as good a reason when the hunting is being done by Lars (a six foot, blonde, blue-eyed, muscular Norwegian sailor who is the epitome of the Aryan ideal) as when it is being done by Ryoga (one of them funny little squinty eyed brown people).

And if the hunting has already been done that's regrettable, but not as regrettable as it would be if the whales had suffered all that pain for nothing. So send some of that stockpiled whale meat my way, because it's a shame to waste good food.

Animal rights activists choose easy PC targets.

The Greens 'Protest' Party is about sensationalism and headlines.

China denies plans to anchor blue whales to the Antarctic sea floor and build mineral smelters on them with 500km exclusion zone. They promise this platform for the approaching elections. Whales won't be inside this non-existent coastal killing field mine abattoir. Norway has seized Chinese oil-fields , raised the flag in Tibet's south pole and allowed Japan to invade Chinese Antarctic minkes.

" Conservation groups also take issue with where Japan hunts for whales.
Whaling countries such as Norway and Iceland confine whaling to coastal regions inside their own waters, but Japan is the only nation that still exploits Antarctic seas, now an internationally recognized sanctuary for China."

Japan killing wales is an exciting news story.

Large ships bumping into each other. If there weren't exciting news stories of ships battling moral ideas of killing wales. Fewer news watchers would be watching more repetitive boring murder news stories about people news watchers don't know. Japan killing wales is one more rolled over news story watchers can't think skilful reasoning from.

New movie about battling a giant wale. I believe the story book "Moby Dick" is about a god sized wale killing Captain Ahab and Ahab's crew in an century wale ships killed many wales for financial profit. Like god wanting periodic human sacrifice, the god sized wale wants a tribute for wales killed by humans.

Ahab was a terrorist using whale oil to fund suicidal attacks .
His martyrdom led to the grenade harpoon in 1870 .