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from the ♪but-there-ain't-no-whales-so-we-tell-tall-tales-and-sing-this-whaling-tune♫ dept.
Japan says it's time to allow sustainable whaling
Few conservation issues generate as emotional a response as whaling. Are we now about to see countries killing whales for profit again? Commercial whaling has been effectively banned for more than 30 years, after some whales were driven almost to extinction. But the International Whaling Committee (IWC) is currently meeting in Brazil and next week will give its verdict on a proposal from Japan to end the ban.
[...] IWC members agreed to a moratorium on hunting in 1986, to allow whale stocks to recover. Pro-whaling nations expected the moratorium to be temporary, until consensus could be reached on sustainable catch quotas. Instead, it became a quasi-permanent ban, to the delight of conservationists but the dismay of whaling nations like Japan, Norway and Iceland who argue that whaling is part of their culture and should continue in a sustainable way.
But by using an exception in the ban that allows for whaling for scientific purposes, Japan has caught between about 200 and 1,200 whales every year. since, including young and pregnant animals.
[...] Hideki Moronuki, Japan's senior fisheries negotiator and commissioner for the IWC, told the BBC that Japan wants the IWC to get back to its original purpose - both conserving whales but also "the sustainable use of whales". [...] Japan, the current chair of the IWC, is suggesting a package of measures, including setting up a Sustainable Whaling Committee and setting sustainable catch limits "for abundant whale stocks/species". As an incentive to anti-whaling nations, the proposals would also make it easier to establish new whale sanctuaries.
Previously: Japan to Resume Whaling, Fleet Sails to Antarctic Tuesday
122 Pregnant Minke Whales Killed in Japan's Last Hunting Season
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday September 07 2018, @08:17PM (3 children)
There's really no level of harvest that's sustainable with today's whale populations, at least among, blue, right, and sperm whales along with killer "whales". They're pretty badly endangered and every single harvest is a threat to population genetic diversity. Sustainably harvest narwhal if you want.
These kinds of plans, if instituted in say, 1890, would be sustainable, but we're still basically at a point where no harvest is good harvest.
So, yes, actual conservationists cheered, because the end-run was around laws that were rehabilitating genuinely endangered species. And it's not an idle concern, there's entire genera of whales that don't exist anymore, purely because of human activity.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Friday September 07 2018, @08:31PM (2 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ikanreed on Friday September 07 2018, @09:25PM
Well, far be it from me to stick to a position without qualification. Seems like a reasonable counterpoint.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday September 08 2018, @05:04AM
As long as it is sustainable, then people can knock themselves out whaling. I'm not sure about the sentience argument, but if we go with that, then no bacon. I'm not down for that.
The problem is when you don't regulate whaling at all, but regulations themselves never happened. Just prohibition. Japan can hunt whale populations that can handle it. Otherwise, no. Seems reasonable to me.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.