I find this incredibly ironic in the light of our jumping up & down about Japanese whaling. although as I've said many times, I find the killing of whales appalling.
Between 1820-1840, whaling was Australia's biggest industry, only being eclipsed after that by wool.
100's of whaling ships & boats were built in Hobart & Sydney. Sperm whales were hunted in the pacific and bay whales were hunted around the southern coasts and Tasmanian inlets. In addition provisioning was made available to large numbers of American whalers all the way from New England bases.
Millions of dollars worth of whale oil (used as pre-kerosene fuel for lamps) was shipped to England, not to mention scores of thousands of sealskins. Yep, we were pretty big in the clubbing slaughter of those pesky little critters too.
Puts it into perspective a bit. What goes around comes around (or is my vice versa)

All I'm saying is: if you used to live in a glass house you better think before you throw stones. 

We have recently acquired a taboo on whaling, so there is apparently nothing hypocritical about getting on our high horse and talking down to whalers. Especially the Japs. After all, we won the war.

Quote:


Oh really gizmo? So you think we should burn fossil fuiels instead of renewable source? Can you explain how to manufacture 'articifical' whale meat? Honestly, the crap that the animal welfare lobby spews forth in their attempts to ban whaling completely is just mind boggling.

Our moral high ground is actuall non-existant. Everyone else seems to realise this, except us.

What is the moral high ground? I see no high ground in the hypocrisy of the anti-whaling mob.

freediver wrote on Jan 22^nd, 2011 at 4:27pm:


Isn't beef, fish, chicken, pork etc an alternative to whale meat FD???
Even in Japan, most of the whale meat is used for pet food...Norway has a higher consumption rate for whale meat, but they hunt locally under the Indigenous( Aboriginal) whaling rules of the IWC.....

Ambergris has been replaced by synthetics, Whale oil has been replaced by Jojoba oil, which is considered a better substance.....and as for whale teeth and whale bone used in jewellery and corsetry...there are a great many alternative materials usable in scrimshaw carving....and how many women regulary wear corsets these days????

Quote:


lmao

You can cut the crap, Freediver. You know you can (and are) making great points without having to resort to silly emotive little snipes like that.

So it is silly to feed our pets? Tell me gizmo, how much money do you think Australians spend on pet food?

And you support whaling for human consumption?

freediver wrote on Jan 22^nd, 2011 at 10:22pm:


No, it's not silly to feed our pets....but our pets will eat pet food made from any source of meat...

But the Japanese Government subsidise the 'research' whaling to the tune of millions of dollars every year, just so it can break even.....

Does that sound like it's economically viable??

Norway hunts whales too...but they catch just enough to meet demand, whereas Japan is trying to encourage or create a demand to meet the catch, by basically giving the meat away in school lunches, and selling it cheap......which isn't really working...

The only reason for Japan's whaling seems to be that other countries and environmental groups say they shouldn't..

I have a bit of an aversion towards killing highly intelligent animals, especially whaling, and why ?

Because they are highly intelligent and emotional creatures.
Whales are known to teach, learn, cooperate, scheme, and even grieve, not unlike humans, I feel the same way about elephants, they are intelligent too, and even have funerals.

Is whale meat a vital resource?

Will they cease to exist without eating Moby-Dick?

Sorry, I'm not trying to take the moral high-ground here, (I realise the Japanese are entitled to hunt and kill what they please, IN THEIR OWN WATERS...I'm just responding to this thread, how I feel personally about whaling, this and don't think they have a right intruding on others waters, in pursuit of something our culture generally has an intense aversion to killing, the same way I wouldn't impose myself on a predominantly Hindu town in India and start gnawing the leg off a sacred cow.

It comes down to mutual respect, and the Japanese intruding on waters who's nations generally disapprove of such activities is disrespectful, so if they wish to continue doing so, then I think they should be brought into line.

Put in their place.

Each to their own, so long as it's their own waters they are hunting in. I'm not happy with their killing these gorgeous animals, but if that's their way, then they should do so in their own waters at least, not ours.

Also, many countries local communities rely heavily on whales for tourism, especially during breeding season, whereby they become a star attraction in many parts of the world, so in depleting world wide numbers,(they are migratory animals)  they are effectively impacting on other nations tourism also.


I personally find this image rather needless and disturbing, but that's my own personal view.

Quote:


There you go again with this talk of other meats. But every time I ask you a simple question about what point you are trying to make, you come up with nothing.

Quote:


But the Japanese Government subsidise the 'research' whaling to the tune of millions of dollars every year, just so it can break even.....

Quote:


Again gizmo, we have been over this too. If there were not so many laws undermining the free market in whale meat, it would be economically viable. You can hardly complain about a government interfering to support it when you also support our government interference.

Quote:


Strawman. Gizmo, people don;t have to justify their food choices to you in order to justify being allowed to eat it. You need to justify trying to take that food out of their mouths.

Quote:


Minke whales are often referred to as the cokroaches of the sea.

Mellie:

Quote:


So you support a ban on pig farming?

Quote:


Compared to what? Cockroaches?

Quote:


Same question to you:

Are you suggesting it is somehow more 'moral' to ban one type of meat because you can replace it with some other type of meat?

Quote:


So you think no-one should be able to take food from international waters?

Quote:


The waters do not belong to others any more than to the Japanese. The Japs are not hunting within our legal territory.

Quote:


You have this backwards Mellie. The Japs aren't imposing on us. We are imposing our nsacred cows on them.

Quote:


We are being extremely hypocritical towards the Japanese. There is no respect in that. We are being complete arseholes to them, and you demand they respect us for it.

Quote:


Have you ever paid to watch minke whales?

Quote:


Which is why you post them? I am noticing a pattern here Mellie.