Orcas Harpooned Illegally a Few Feet from Tourists in Caribbean

[tilikum]

It's a practice that needs to disappear.

 

[clownfishsydney]

I am pretty sure that the killing of marine mammals (including whales) is illegal in almost every first world country, with the one exception of native subsistence hunting. In Australia, this certainly does not permit killing of orcas under any circumstances as they would not be considered a traditional food source.

 

[gwklein]

I am pretty sure that the killing of marine mammals (including whales) is illegal in almost every first world country, with the one exception of native subsistence hunting. In Australia, this certainly does not permit killing of orcas under any circumstances as they would not be considered a traditional food source.

I believe that Norway and Japan are two first world countries that still allow comercial whaling.

 

[reks_mallo]

I agree that this is an issue, but this post was poorly written. Whaling, while horrendous, is legal in that area. It is also legal for "research purposes", and I don't exactly agree with that either. Using false information to stir up controversy is a horrible practice. Get your facts straight before you start crying on the internet.

 

[dlofting]

I agree that from a large scale, long-term economic overview, tourism trumps the killing of whales, but I question how some of these small villages that have relied on fishing in the past will benefit from increased tourism, without assistance from the SVG government.

This is the crux of the issue, and it goes beyond whaling to other "practices" in economically disadvantaged countries. It's easy for me, sitting here comfortably in Canada, to abhor/criticize the actions of these people, but many of them are just trying to survive. That's really what we have to fix.....help provide these people (and others like them) with a means of making a living that doesn't require the killing of whales, or some other environmentally detrimental activity. Until that happens, passing new laws is not going to solve things.