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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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In 1946 the IWC stated their purpose was to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry"
In 2018 they stated their purpose was now different; "the purpose of the IWC is the conservation of whales and that they would now safeguard the marine mammals in perpetuity and would allow the recovery of all whale populations to pre-industrial whaling levels."
So it seems to me that the IWC has betrayed their original remit and that in response to this Japan have pulled out.
It's all right here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Whaling_Commission
Given that the IWC's stated aims in 1946 were to enable industry, and their apparent about-face on that matter, it seems to me not to be a simple case of Japan == evil.
On the face of it it sounds like radical environmentalists have overtaken what was supposed to be a comission for sustained industry, and have turned it into a platform for eco-warrior enforcement. A similar thing to what happened with Greenpeace.
Whales are animals. Animals are food. Food feeds people and is part of culture. We don't eat children. Children are not food.
I can't really agree with a boycott on the basis that the IWC was infiltrated and all of the actual nations that do have a culture and history of hunting at sea for food have been lied to for over 30 years or so.
Just because the IWC was set up for a different reason originally doesn't mean that the conclusion they came to on the basis of scientific advice more than thirty years ago is wrong.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Japan has been following the rules since 1986 under the notion that the IWC was going to continue to try to find ways to enable industry. Since 1991 IWC scientists have said that whaling quotas could be sustainable. But the IWC has refused to renege on the moratorium.
If you disagree with whale-hunting on pure principle, that's one thing. But Japan are not wrong. The IWC is failing to deliver on it's commitments - commitments that have been restated time and time again since the inception of the IWC, and have now just been reneged on recently.
It's obviously completely possible to enable some sort of commercial whale hunting on a quota basis. The issue is that the majority of IWC members are anti-hunting on emotional and principle grounds. Not scientific and business orientated grounds.
Is there common ground? I don't know. But it's completely within Japan's right as a sovereign nation state to pull out of an international group and set of agreements in order to be able to fish it's own national territory. Which is what they're going to be doing.
By pulling out of the IWC, they're no longer able to fish in the Antarctic. They've accepted this consequence it seems.
We clear hundreds of miles of rainforest a year.
Seems we’re doing a poor job across the board.
I think the fishing industry full stop is pretty destructive to the oceans so so find it hard to be morally outraged by whalling in isolation.
Also the amount of plastic shit we discard that ends up in the sea, personally I think we should either take the lead in global standards or realise taking the moral high ground doesn’t really work.
If were talking boycotting things start with non farmed or non hand caught fish
And they're doing it more than the rest of the world combined.
And it's primarily down to the lack of local collection and sorting facilities and no cultural appreciation for refuse collection. Seriously.
I do, as do a very large number of other people.
Will they not be whaling in international waters then? I find that hard to believe.
That is a good, and difficult, question - but the answer has to be less meat of all kinds. And we should probably start by stopping eating the most intelligent, and possibly endangered, wild species.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein