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122 Pregnant Whales Were Killed in Japan's Latest Hunt. Was This Illegal?
More than 120 pregnant female whales were among 333 killed during Japan's recent annual summer hunt off the coast of Antarctica, according to a new report.
The report, released by the International Whaling Commission this month, said 122 of the slaughtered minke whales were pregnant and 114 were considered immature.
The last hunting season in the Antarctic for Japan ran from Dec. 8 to Feb. 28.
Conservationists said the new report was further evidence that Japan was killing whales for commercial purposes under the guise of scientific research.
Whether the annual hunt is legal is unclear, as some federal and international laws are in conflict with one another.
Also at BBC and Smithsonian Magazine.
A Minke whale, after reaching maturity, ranges from 7-10 m in length and masses from 5-10 metric tons.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday June 01 2018, @07:36PM (1 child)
You can always look at the FAO capture zone [fao.org], they're required to mention that on the package, or whether it's MSC certified [msc.org] (blue fish symbol; depends on if you trust that certification organization of course).
I never buy fish without the MSC label, but I can't be 100% sure that they are honest.
I am intrigued by the idea that eating fish makes you smarter (as smart as a seal?? Moist Monkey Hypothesis [wikipedia.org]) and I believe that a world where our descendants have to subsist on deep-fried jellyfish burgers with plastic sauce, instead of fish and shrimps and glasswort and perriwinkles and crabs, is sad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 02 2018, @09:11PM
Commercial fishing does not scale well to feed billions of people. It's like one bunch of hunters setting traps and destroying forests to catch pigs and letting the caught cows and chickens die. Then another bunch setting traps and destroying forests to catch chickens and letting the pigs and cows die. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bycatch#Examples [wikipedia.org]
So farming is the way to go: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/06/10/188431577/how-to-clean-up-fish-farms-and-raise-more-seafood-at-the-same-time [npr.org]
But not the sort where you catch other fish via commercial fishing to feed the fish in the farms... But what can we feed the fish with that will let them still retain much of their health and nutritional benefits to humans, while still making economical sense?