We have whale watching tours off Victoria BC. And who has ever gone to Hawaii without at least seeing their spouts on the blue waters. Or been on a catamaran when a humpback 'mugs' the boat, swimming directly beneath it at close range. Or when one 'breaches', taking the observer's breath away with the huge splash. The gentle behemoths are loved by anyone who has ever seen or heard them.
World wide, when commercial whaling was stopped about 20 years ago, their numbers were down to 20% of their world-wide population. Since then, they have only recovered slightly. They are still red listed.
Japan has recently stated their intention to begin slaughtering more than 50 humpbacks a year. Resuming whaling without the International Whaling Commission's permission. They currently slaughter each year over 1000 minke whales and fin whales. The Norwegians about the same. The Japanese are using a loophole in the regulations and say they will take them for 'scientific research'. We all know they will be slaughtering these wonderful creatures to feed the lust for whale meat and oil that oriental people want to consume for whatever reasons. Similar, one suspects, to eating Bengal tigers to improve sexual prowess. (no evidence anywhere to support this silly theory)
The Japanese murder whales with special grenade tipped harpoons. The creatures dies a horrible prolonged death. Liken it to a human being murdered with firecrackers implanted under your skin.
This needs to stop. Whales have no threats to humans on this planet. They are benign beautiful creatures.
Let your voice be heard by at least signing a petition on the following website;
http://wspa.org.uk/index.asp
Other actions you could take would be to let your feelings be known to Japan, Iceland and Norway by urguing them to abandon whale meat and preserve a wonderful part of life on our planet. And tell everyone you know about this misguided Japanese lust for whale meat. You could also picket your local Honda dealer. Cause them to put pressure on their OWN governement.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,5-2006280068,00.html
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1090214.ece
Then they need to protest their OWN government, and not leave it to others. In-country protests have the most influence on governments' actions. mass rally against whaling would be a strong message to the Japanese government. If there wasn't such a strong demand for whale meat, this killing of whales would have died a natural death long ago.
ReplyDeleteit is racist to say that Chinese people have black hair? Telling it like it is is not racist.
ReplyDeleteRight on anonymous..
ReplyDeleteCater I don't see anything you said was racist, your comments were right on.
This is not racist, Koreans eat dog and cats. Japanese eat whale, and other Asians eat anything from the ocean that moves or not.It is what they say is their culture.If they don't like it brought to our attention then they should go back from where they came from and delete all their natural resourses.
If you go to Japan, you'll find whale meat in high class meat stores and restaurants. The regular people don't eat it anymore. (probably because it is so expensive more than anything else) The rich who can afford it are driving this industry, and protests aimed at embarrassing them might work.
ReplyDeleteBut probably not because they're annonymous and still believe that eating the meat might make you "strong as a whale", something the rest of the world knows won't work, but some Japanese still think it will. They are the same ones who eat tiger bones for sexual strength. Which we nisei also know won't work. I do think you need to embarrass the government. If that's possible, the sense of old world honor among Japanese is longer be there.
This is the kind of action that brings milions of people into the support of those Greenpeace protesters on the high seas! No longer will I consider them off the wall. I am going to start contributing to the organization and backing them any way I can.
ReplyDeleteThere is absolutely NO reason to be killing whales in this day and age.