Whale hunting? What the hell?

[sb_diver]

I agree with not hunting them to extinction, and I agree with the moratorium on hunting, I actually think there should be more enforcement of the moratorium too, I know of a researcher who went to Japan and looked at the whale meat in the markets and analyzed its DNA and found that there was Blue Whale and other endangered species. That's just not responsible on the part of the Japanese, I think that the endangered whales need to be protected. However, I don't see harvesting whales as comparable to cannibalism or torture or female circumcision though, thats just not fair. That's a bit of an exagerration.

Just my humble opinion
Thomas

 

[Wildcard]

Wait for it. The anti-environmentalists should be posting soon.

Ya got that right!

Cannibalism, infanticide. torture, female "circumscision" and much else were also "a cultural thing". So is/was the consumption of the brain of living monkeys. Beef has been domesticated (and bred for docility and stupidity) for thousands of years. While we, and the cattle and the environment would all be much better off if we ate much less of it, the fact that we gorge ourselves on unhealthy quantities of animals we raise for slaughter in no way justifies the obscenity of hounding and slowly murdering intelligent, sociable and above all, harmless-to-us creatures. How can you justify the slaughter of creatures that have, despite ample opportunity and easy means, virtually no record of ever harming humans? (except to occasionally signal that they've had enough).

It would be wise for those of us who buy Japanese products to indicate their disagreement with Japan's whaling policies.

Have you ever eaten whale? I had some muktuk and meat from a bowhead I think. I couldn't brush the taste out. I was looking for a dogs butt to lick to kill the taste. I don't know how the people that eat that stuff ever were able to reproduce.....The locals still hunt belugs and seals in Homer, kinda far from the artic. If there are enough to harvest, who are we to say others can't?

 

[Seabear70]

I don't like whale hunting, I think it's abominable...

That being said, there's something people have to understand.

Whalers ar not doing this to be intentionally cruel, most of them are not anyway. This is how their families have made a living for perhaps hundreds of years. This is what they were raised to do. They know no other way of life. And are not even aware that they need to look for another way of life.

Eskimos are in a similar "boat", no pun actually intended. They have lived for thousands of years hunting seals and walrus and whales. To them it's not cruelty, it's a way of life and a way to eat. Let's face it, if you get up inthe Aeleution chain, there's not a lot of farmable land, Cattle is strictly out of the question.

So, talking about banning whaling is all fine and dandy, but it won't solve the problem. These people are not working 9-5 jobs, they are just living their lives.

If you really want to eliminate whaling, you can't do it by attacking the whalers, not unless you want to commit several cases of genocide. If you want to eliminate whaling, attack the market for whales. In the case of the Japanese whalers it would be a case of getting the Japanese to pass laws forbidding the sale of whale "products" and actively enforcing those laws with massive fines.

For the Eskimos, I'm not certain how you could stop them without killing them off. Those people are sometimes without contact for months on end, and they live off of whatever they can.

 

[Innsmouth]

In case you're interested. Palau isn't going to block Japanese whalers in their waters. I just read an article about it somewhere. They think that Palau has seen the color of Japanese money. Whatever group posted this info is urging divers not to spend any tourist money there until they change their minds and they have a petition you can sign. I'll try and find the link if anyone expresses interest.

 

[Wildcard]

I don't like whale hunting, I think it's abominable...

That being said, there's something people have to understand.

Whalers ar not doing this to be intentionally cruel, most of them are not anyway. This is how their families have made a living for perhaps hundreds of years. This is what they were raised to do. They know no other way of life. And are not even aware that they need to look for another way of life.

Eskimos are in a similar "boat", no pun actually intended. They have lived for thousands of years hunting seals and walrus and whales. To them it's not cruelty, it's a way of life and a way to eat. Let's face it, if you get up inthe Aeleution chain, there's not a lot of farmable land, Cattle is strictly out of the question.

So, talking about banning whaling is all fine and dandy, but it won't solve the problem. These people are not working 9-5 jobs, they are just living their lives.

If you really want to eliminate whaling, you can't do it by attacking the whalers, not unless you want to commit several cases of genocide. If you want to eliminate whaling, attack the market for whales. In the case of the Japanese whalers it would be a case of getting the Japanese to pass laws forbidding the sale of whale "products" and actively enforcing those laws with massive fines.

For the Eskimos, I'm not certain how you could stop them without killing them off. Those people are sometimes without contact for months on end, and they live off of whatever they can.

I don't know how to break this to you but the near end of the Alaska penn had thousands of cattle. The majority of whales are taken up north in the Beaufort sea. US and Canada both take them. IPWC regulates the number of "strikes" the get every year. A strike is one shot, ya miss and your eating Spam that winter. As far as contact, Im not sure how far you have never been from there but they have everything everyone else does, internet, electricity, drug problems, ect.

 

[Wildcard]

I have attached a link for you. As you will see, Alaska is huge with many different cultures. What you call Eskimos are realy Inupiaq. The differance between the north slope natives and the panhandle natives is as big as the native americans ( don't get me going on this one) that live in Idaho and the ones that live in Florida.

Different cultures eat different things. The "native" hawaiians ate Capt Cook just 300 years ago. Some people eat dog. I don't like it but who am I to say what they can eat?
http://www.alaskanative.net/2.asp

 

[Snowbear]

I don't know how to break this to you but the near end of the Alaska penn had thousands of cattle.

Didn't they switch to reindeer a few decades ago?

As far as contact, Im not sure how far you have never been from there but they have everything everyone else does, internet, electricity, drug problems, ect.

Some do. Some villages do not have more than a generator or two, a single telephone and no-one has yet been able to figure out how to make a septic system work properly on the tundra

 

[Seabear70]

I don't know how to break this to you but the near end of the Alaska penn had thousands of cattle. The majority of whales are taken up north in the Beaufort sea. US and Canada both take them. IPWC regulates the number of "strikes" the get every year. A strike is one shot, ya miss and your eating Spam that winter. As far as contact, Im not sure how far you have never been from there but they have everything everyone else does, internet, electricity, drug problems, ect.

Actually, My mother Grew up on Diomede.

http://www.uark.edu/misc/jcdixon/Historic_Whaling/Villages/Diomede.htm

She still has friends there. Phone service in the winter is "Iffy" Most toilets are bucket type except for the school, and in the winter those are bucket type. The place is basicly a huge gravel pile. Electricity is iffy at most times as they have to generate it on the island with Disel generators. "The Air Port" has no real traffic except for the rare tourist and medivac. Phone service goes out for months at a time, despite that they ran a sub sea cable. Water traffic in the winter, as yo can imagine is for al intents and purposes impossible as the Ice is thicker than breakers can manage, and the natives use this time period to go and visit relatives in Russia.

Now, to try to use one example of Alaska to describe the rest of it, really is naive. You see Alaska is big, when I say big, I mean Huge. By Huge, you have to understand, Texas seems big until you really take a good look at Alaska. In Anchorage, in the summer it will often get above 100 F. But in the north, Saltwater does not melt.

 

[Wildcard]

Didn't they switch to reindeer a few decades ago?
Some do. Some villages do not have more than a generator or two, a single telephone and no-one has yet been able to figure out how to make a septic system work properly on the tundra

They went from boo to cattle in the late 1800s, for the most part. A far as septic, 10 more years and Alaska will be like Texas, hot and dry. They will work fine then. Untill then, I'll stick with my outhouse thank you very much.


Didn't mean to step on any toes but I get real defensive when people start talking about my home. Most that do have never been there it would seem. Diomede is about the only place in AK I haven't been. Kaktovik to Adak ( just got a call yesterday to come back) to Ketchikan but haven't made it to the Pribs.

Back to the original topic, Whales are a big hunk of meat, if people want to eat them, why not?

 

[Seabear70]

Personally, I've never been to Diomede or Alaska for that matter. I do know the diference between an Ulu and a Kemilick though. (don't tell me... I probably spelled that wrong)

My problem with eating whale is tat esentially there is are some fairly solid reasons to believe that they are as smart as we are. So I guess it just gives me the creeps. But as you can tell from my prior posts, I do not lok down on te people, just the practice.