This week, the issue of whaling has reared its ugly head again. Environmentalists have clashed with Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, while Japan has hosted a conference for those in favour of whaling. The opponents of the practice were branded as imperialists. Nice one, Japan. If I'm being nasty, I could ask people to look back 65 years or so, and see Japan in action.
That's not the issue - I'm not bashing the Japanese for that reason. They, together with nations like Norway and Iceland, continue to hunt whales, ostensibly for scientific purposes but in reality to feed a local custom. In the past, products were extracted from whales which have since been replaced by synthetic products, or sourced from other creatures. There is, in this day and age, no justification for the whale hunt.
The Whaling Commission is there to monitor whale numbers and regulate the hunting. Japan is leaning on countries that have no links with whaling to support them, and cajole the international community into lifting the ban on the whale hunt. That would be catastrophic from an environmental point of view. Whales could be hunted to extinction.
I am not a Greenpeace type of person, I am not an activist. Some times, I think they go too far. However, more often than not, they represent a sizeable section of society who do not want environmentally harmful practices to continue. Whether it be the dumping of defunct oilplatforms in the ocean (like the Brent Spar platform some 15 years ago), or the hunting of whales.
I was considering placing an image of a whale hunt on this post. I decided not to, as this might well be distressing or offensive.
Technorati Tags: whale, hunt, japan
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Placing a whale hunt photo on here would have distressed me Guido. It has always been a dream of mine to see a whale before I die. I was just about to tour the Hebrides and Scotland the August I was told about my cancer and so it had to be cancelled. How any member of the human race still wants to kill these majestic beautiful creatures I do not know. I just cannot comprehend their mentality. I hope the Japanese sailors are banned completely from murdering these gentle majestic creatures. Sorry if this sounds like a rant. Jeanie
ReplyDeleteGreenpeace has been down to stop the whaling 10 times, and have always put respect for the whalers' safety first. As much as we want to end whaling, we stick by our principles of peaceful action.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Greenpeace ship (the Esperanza) has not yet encountered the whaling fleet this year. Anything you saw in the news was the Sea Shepherds.
Now our ship is headed to the position of the whaling fleet, but this time to help them. It's a funny world sometimes. Read about it here...
<a href="http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceandefenders">http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceandefenders</a>
And whether you're an activist or not, you can find your own way to protect the whales here...
<a href="http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceandefenders">http://whales.greenpeace.org</a>