By Simon Leufstedt, published on November 21st, 2007
Japan’s whaling fleet has once again sets sail for Antarctic, on a mission to brutally slaughter whales. Let’s call it what it’s actually is and not “scientific research”, like Japan calls it.
But this time it’s a little different. This year they have decided to go big and brutally murder around 1000 whales. That’s the largest whaling mission Japan has ever done. Included in that amount are 50 humpback whales. That means that Japan will break a 44-year ban on hunting humpback whales.
This decision has already sparked loud protests from environmental groups and governments around the world. Especially the UK, Australia and New Zealand have sharply criticised Japan.
Labor, the opposition party in Australia has suggested that if they are elected in the Australian federal election this Sunday they will track down Japans whaling fleet using their military.
Greenpeace will, once again, try to track down the whaling fleet and disturb their hunt as much as possible. Karli Thomas, expedition leader onboard the Greenpeace ship Esperanza says that “the whaling fleet must be recalled now. If it is not, we will take direct, non-violent action to stop the hunt”.
Sea Shephard has also set sails to try and track down and stop the whaling fleet. Captain Paul Watson says that they “need to find and intercept these vicious killers as soon as possible. Every day of searching will cost the lives of whales”.
Loading ...
Express yourself. Tell us your opinion.
Make a comment!
8 Comments
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:15 am
I have been visiting Japan since 1980, first on a scholarship and since on business. I like Japan, its culture and the people.
In the 1970s I went with Australia’s last whaling fleet to observe them hunting sperm whales. I liked the captain and crew. They did their job well but the sperm whales still died hard. There is no such thing as a clean kill with a harpoon. This is inhumane and the people who hunted whales felt this as well. This is indefensible.
This is not a cultural issue. It is an ethical issue. No human need is being fulfilled by killing a whale. There is no cure for cancer or a solution to hunger. The meat ends up on the plates of the affluent. And no great scientific knowledge is being gained by the death of any whale.
Whales are wild stock. You cannot compare the death of a whale to the death of a farmed animal. We know so little about whales and we can never be sure of their numbers. There is no argument to justify the whale hunt by Japan’s government.
http://thelastwhale.blogspot.com
March 13th, 2008 at 2:51 am
You are right, whaling is HORRIBLE. Poor hopeless whales should be left alone, they do not deserve to be caught and killed for ’scientific purposes’. WHALING ARE FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO HEART FOR THE NATURE AND ANIMALS!!!
Tank-you,
Jacqui
March 15th, 2008 at 5:43 am
whales are friendly they dont kill us why should we kill them its un fair Japan can eat other food like cows
please stop it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
a little girl from Hat Head Australia
March 25th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
How many cows kill people?
April 24th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Whales disserve to live just like any other mammal in and out of the ocean. They have do nothing to us so we should do nothing to them. They have never killed us and never will. JUST LAY OFF JAPAN!!!!!!!! Its just inhumain to kill an innocent animal.
From a kid in Canada
May 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am
well i think that this is bad for the wailing population bacause if there was less wails then they caouldnt have sex so there would be no babys so there would be no wails and iv eaten wail and it dosnt tast nice so i dont think it is a very good idea ok?
June 28th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
leave the whales alone they’ve lived in peace for years and now japan wants to come in and just decide there going to start killing them they never bothered or harmed you so don’t go into their home and murder them
Write your comment
Please post an intelligent and civil comment. Spammy and inflammatory comments will be deleted.
You can use some HTML tags, such as <b>, <i>, <a> and <blockquote>
We use Gravatars (and MyBlogLog avatars), they are little icons that appear next to your name on this site and on many others. You can get a Gravatar account for free and any other site that supports it will show your avatar too!
Don't forget that you can also discuss this post in our environment forum. Registration is free, simple and takes just a few seconds
Note: If this is your first time making a comment here on Green Blog it will be held for moderation before being published.