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A recent law promoting whaling allows Japan to take a key step towards resuming commercial hunting of the giant mammals that are "a great source of food," officials said on Thursday.
Japan defies international protests to carry out what it calls scientific research whaling, having repeatedly said its ultimate goal is to whale commercially again. In the 2016-2017 season, its fleet took 333 minke whales in the Antarctic.
The new law, passed in June, will help enshrine as a "national responsibility" an activity that was previously just a tacit policy, said Shigeki Takaya, director of the Whaling Affairs Office at Japan's Fisheries Agency.
"While the government has given its support to the implementation of scientific research into whales, it is heartening to see that the law clarifies its position even further," Takaya told a news conference.
In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan should halt Antarctic whaling.
Per the Huff, Japan's government thumbs its nose at international law at the behest of their commercial fishing industries, and gives permission to "deal with" protesters.
In a 2012 poll conducted for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), 88.8% of the Japanese public said they had not bought any whale meat in the past 12 months. While 26.6% said they supported Japan's scientific whaling, 18.5% opposed the hunts and the rest of the population were undecided, hardly a ringing endorsement of Japan's bloody whaling policy.
Much of the whale meat brought in from the scientific whaling scheme is being held in warehouses, frozen because it does not sell well on the Japan market. Sales of dolphin meat have also plummeted. Because sales of whale meat are so poor, the Japan government has subsidized the scientific whaling scheme at 5 billion yen ($44.7 million US) annually.
Furthermore, the new legislation allows Japan to send vessels to Antarctica with the fleet specifically to deal with harassment from such organizations as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which seeks to interfere with whaling activities they contend violate international law. [...] The legislation also gives new authority to Japan immigration enforcement to deal with people who may be "likely" to sabotage or harass whaling vessels in Japan. This is an obvious effort to legalize the blocking of people, such as members of Sea Shepherd, who come to Japan to legally and peacefully protest the dolphin hunts in Taiji.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Arik on Saturday July 22 2017, @03:09AM (34 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Saturday July 22 2017, @03:49AM (7 children)
Of course, we're not talking about allowing a commercially viable operation.
We're talking about big government subsidizing an outdated and dying industry.
What other government handouts are you in favor of?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:32AM (2 children)
Of course not. It's about a government subsidizing traditions and culture, see?
Had the kings of England been doing the same the same, maybe USA would be populated nowadays by druids instead of righteous protestants of various denomination
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Geezer on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:15AM (1 child)
There were no kings of England in the time of the druids. The Romans eradicated the druids long before the was a unified "England". The various pre-Roman rulers of Iron Age Britain were little more than local warlords.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Saturday July 22 2017, @11:10AM
You are of course right.
Except for one village, but that village was in Brittany [wikipedia.org], not in Britain.
(still whooosh?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:32AM (3 children)
Yeah, actually we are. Japanese consumers are happily paying well over the natural cost of operation already.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:27AM (2 children)
Because sales of whale meat are so poor, the Japan government has subsidized the scientific whaling scheme at 5 billion yen ($44.7 million US) annually.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:38AM (1 child)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 22 2017, @02:07PM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:08AM (14 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:22AM
No, I don't see any whales shitposting here, unless you're a whale.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:37AM
FTFY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:34AM (9 children)
[Citation needed.]
Yeah, no, that's almost certainly false. They're big mammals. So are cattle.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:00AM (4 children)
khallow said this. He his own self is a large mammal. He would know. I trust him on this. Since I assume he is human.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:12AM (3 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:54AM (2 children)
"They talk with their meat!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ [youtube.com]
"Maybe they are like the Wedolai?" "No, we probed them all the way through, they are made of meat". Whale meat? As good as any meat.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Saturday July 22 2017, @07:24AM (1 child)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday July 22 2017, @07:40AM
And, they talk with their meat. "What does the thinking?" "The brain does the thinking, it's made of meat." Am I not made of meat? If I am harpooned, do I not bleed?
"Whale of Venice", Shakemyspear, slightly altered. So, have you seen the White Whale, Arik? Where doth he betides? Speak, man, that I may sloth my vengeance!! Or be ye Japonesse?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 22 2017, @01:00PM
Humans are big animals too. Your criteria needs to be a little more specific.
(Score: 2, Funny) by dry on Sunday July 23 2017, @06:22AM
They don't post with an unreadable font, so at least they're more intelligent then you, a big mammal comparable to cattle and fine to harvest for meat.
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Monday July 24 2017, @12:12PM (1 child)
There is a lot of research showing that whale and dolphin intelligence is in the neighborhood of humans, and some research showing it might be higher. Because they lack good methods of using tools (no hands/thumbs), and a lack of resources to fashion into tools, due to being aquatic, so that has hampered their "development" into a civilization comparable to ours. Also, cows are pretty darned intelligent, at least as much as dogs, and should not be eaten either if there are plant based options.
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday July 24 2017, @04:08PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:01AM (1 child)
Then why is Norway and Iceland whaling?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Norway#Commercial_whaling [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Iceland#Commercial_whaling [wikipedia.org]
Why are people eating monkeys? Literally, they don't raise chicken, but kill everything that moves in the forest.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/05/why-west-africans-keep-hunting-and-eating-bush-meat-despite-ebola-concerns/ [washingtonpost.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 22 2017, @12:13PM
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:19AM (3 children)
Clearly, the excessive levels of mercury in marine mammal meat has impaired the rationality of those pushing the hunt.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/packaged-whale-meat-in-ja/ [scientificamerican.com]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:01AM (2 children)
After the spiciness of Fukushima, mercury has a soothing, cooling effect.
See also Minamata disease [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:36AM (1 child)
Movin' barrels at a chemical plant
There's shiny-looking dust on my fingers
Goin' up my nose and into my lungs
It's the Kepone poisoning-Minamata
Kepone poisoning-Minamata
At the grimy Kepone Factory
Turning people into bonzai trees
Now I've got these splitting headaches
I can't quite get it up no more
I can't sleep and it's driving me crazy
I shake all day and I'm seeing double
Kepone poisoning-Minamata
Kepone poisoning-Minamata
Gonna go down your big metal building
Gonna slam right through your bright metal door
Gonna grab you by your sta-prest collar
And ram some kepone down your throat
The lawyer says 'That's the breaks, kid
Gonna gnarl and rot the rest of your life
If you don't sue, we'll give you a Trans-Am:'
That I'll never drive cos I shake all the time
'Cause of the Kepone poisoning Minamata
At the grimy Kepone factory
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:20AM
Well yeah, they're the Dead Kennedys.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:22AM (6 children)
Well then, I suggest we leave the harvest to the bears.
(And, oh, in case you did not know, whaling is not native to Japan, it was introduced by Gen. MacArthur as a source of protein when people were starving at the close of WWII.)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:32AM (5 children)
traditional.
However only a few islands/villages performed much whaling prior to the post-WW2 boom.
Mostly today it is a giant FU to the international community dictating what a sovereign nation can and cannot do. Something that while I dislike their choice of target, I understand the national and political motivation for doing so.
That said: Is there even still enough interest in whale meat in Japan to warrant commercial level whaling activities? I was lead to believe that the majority of younger japanese don't particularly like the flavor and the older mostly liked it because it was a staple of their school lunches.
(Score: 2) by n1 on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:01AM (2 children)
From TFS:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:09AM (1 child)
Japan should publish a science journal with only whaling research in it. Let's see how many papers they can come up with every year.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:32PM
contents:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:05AM (1 child)
Yes! This is why the United States of America insists on allowing child soldiers into its ranks! Why it uses prison/slave labor in its Volkswagen plants. Why the United States insists on executing children and the mentally impaired? So, killing Baby Beluga Minke Shamus is just like that. Seriously. Fuck you, world.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:49PM
we have plenty of humans. not so many whales. it's pretty simple really.