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, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @02:53AM (3 children)
Star Trek IV is still on course as future history.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:20AM (2 children)
oops. I didn't see the title. Please correct my funny mod.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:24AM
The Whale Probe looked Black to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @08:58AM
Oh how do you suggest we correct your mod? You are only, as now am I, spreading the nefarious racist title, and besmirching the good name of SoylentNews! If only there were some way to ban the use of racial slurs, at least as trademarks, here on SoylentNews! If only we were not infested with 14 year old boys who claim to be 13 and live in Switzerland! If, but that is the matter, is it not. The person who posted the title probably wanted to go swimming with Tilikum, and have the whale bite off his junk. Of course, if that happened, your "funny" mod would be correct. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/blackfish/documentary-killer-whales-seaworld/ [telegraph.co.uk]
(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.
(Score: 2) by julian on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:44AM (14 children)
Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals is on my reading list but I've read Sanger and enough on ethics generally that I know I can't figure out a way to justify my own diet while condemning the Japanese for their diet. Every objection I might raise to their harvesting of whales probably applies to one of the animals I eat.
Whaling might even be more ethical than some of the ways I (usually unknowingly) get my food. A whale at least gets to live a natural, free, life for as long as it does before being hunted. I'm sure I ate some animal this week that lived a bleak and torturous life on a factory farm, the highlight of which was when death finally came to end the misery.
The best argument I can make against whaling is that being a hypocrite doesn't mean I'm wrong.
(Score: 2) by julian on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:47AM
That should say "Singer", as in Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RamiK on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:57AM (10 children)
Let me have a crack at it.
Ethics only apply to fellow humans as the frame work of our social contracts. We give some exceptions to domesticated animals since we're hardwired to recuperate productive interaction and they find a fitting place in our society in a sense. But when it comes to wild life, it's an all you can eat buffet.
If you want to axiom "all life is sacred" and "killing is bad" to extend some\all ethics to other forms of life, then herbivores are also facing moral problems as they prey on plant life. If you're setting intelligence as the criteria, you're no less a hypocrite than the strong saying "power is justice" or the aristocrat saying "status and blood is justice" as intelligence is just as self-serving as any other trait animals have with the exception of humans possessing the most of it.
Eventually, you're left with the benefit of humanity as the only criteria. It's self-serving, but it's honest and gives foundation to our social contracts and ethics. Moreover, luckily for the tree-huggers and lovers of all things cute & cuddly, we share our habitat in a relatively symbiotic relationship with many species so we can establish laws that prevent their senseless exploitation. However, it's a case-by-case decision where each species is evaluated per their usefulness to the habitat. In the case of whales, it depends on the species: Some clear up plankton and should protected. But most are no better than sharks. So, why not hunt them?
Good enough?
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @08:04AM (1 child)
You fucking bastard! What gives you the right to limit ethics like this? You are not the only sentient species on the planet, and not the only sapient species! You have just declared war against all else in the universe, you have exiled yourself from the community of ethical beings, and the rest of us will regard you as outlaws, excommunicates, to be killed on sight. Your one compensation is that we will not eat you. Well, most of us will not eat you. Pray hard and fast, petty human.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:34AM
Social contract theory. Otherwise, it's just random unstructured morals. Text book definition really...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:06AM (1 child)
Let me give you a crack at it. If social contract breaks down, and if I see you, and I'm hungry, I will eat you.
And most people, like yourself, are complete idiots that jeopardize the future of our species.. Why not hunt them?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @11:04AM
> jeopardize the future of our species...
Speaking as a marine biologist, hunting whales doesn't jeopardize the human species. There's issues of bio-diversity and monoculture that necessitate monitoring the pods population which is what my colleagues are paid to do... But just like deer hunting, there's no real danger of anyone going extinct so long as quotas are in place.
> If social contract breaks down...
If my memory serves from a decades past ethics course, social contracts are how philosophers frame any form of rules agreed between people. This includes what most people would call "common courtesy" and the family unit. So, in effect, you're saying that if humans become a completely different species, you'd hunt humans. Which, is a given... No?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 22 2017, @01:04PM (2 children)
Those social contracts also clearly include pets, work animals, and livestock. Try again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:00PM (1 child)
A contract must have two-party consent. Not only animal can't consent, they'd run away given the chance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @08:44PM
Just not true. Give chickens all the chances you want, and they will not run away from any humane operation, because scrounging your own food is hard, and they know you've got a whole bin of it. They'll keep popping out eggs as long as you keep handing out feed. Chickens -- the welfare queens of the farm.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 22 2017, @02:18PM (2 children)
Hypocrisy is defined as:
Thus, none of the examples you cited are hypocritical since there is no non-conformance of personal behavior, the strong believes in justice through power and since they are powerful, their beliefs are consistent with their actions.
What would hypocrisy for the latter two is that if the party which was strong or of aristocratic lineage, had those attributes taken away, they would likely suddenly switch to a different opinion (power is not justice and status and blood wasn't as important as formerly alleged). But if someone who is intelligent suddenly lost that intelligence altogether, they would be incapable of having a contrary opinion or behaving in a way contrary to their former opinion. Thus, the use of intelligence as a criteria (say for being eaten) has a moral consistency to it that your other examples do not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:22PM (1 child)
Power, status and blood are transitory states. Power is acquired and lost over time. Similarly blood and status mix and change as society changes and the generations pass and mutations form. Justice, however, is absolute. So, claiming something that's always changing can fulfill the criteria for something that always stays the same just because you advantageously happen to posses it presently is hypocritical.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 23 2017, @03:00AM
But that doesn't necessarily matter to the person with the opinion. If those transitions don't happen, then the holder of the belief remains irritatingly consistent.
Not even remotely true. Justice is notoriously subjective. There are plenty of examples where people think that some activity is wrong and should be punished, while others do not. And it changes as we develop technologies that create new ways to be just and unjust.
There can be no justice without an intelligence to implement it. You can take power or status away and still conceive of patterns of justice. If you take intelligence away, there is nothing to conceive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @07:01AM
Leave Ethanol_fueled out of this! It is just not right! Poor bastard, living off of the pleasure that others take from him. Has he not suffered enough? They already sent him down to the turkey farm! With the goats! And the , OMG!!!!!!
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Monday July 24 2017, @11:51AM
Have you thought that maybe that says something about your diet also? Speaking from experience, it is very freeing to stop making use of animal products for anything. I didn't think it was possible for me to do it, but one day after watching some documentaries, I decided that my subconscious had know it was wrong for long enough, and I was just going to do it. I initially did it mostly for health and environmental reasons, but once the cognitive dissonance wore off, it was easy to also identify ethically that mass industries abusing and killing billions of animals a year is just plain wrong (when we don't need to do it).. There is plenty of support out there on the interwebz. If you have questions, feel free to stop by /r/vegan. It's a great community (and generally non judgmental for omnis coming there with honest questions).
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:02PM (1 child)
I really don't want any whaling, however I want to relate an anecdote on poaching in sub-Saharan Africa. I don't remember the specifics, but two countries took two different approaches to poaching in the same time frame: zero tolerance death penalty vs legalization of harvesting ivory. Ultimately the country with legalization had reduced poaching, because land owners now had incentive to protect the elephants on their land: they are now a resource.
Oceans are more tricky as there aren't property laws, so we get into the tragedy of the commons. If Japan is the only country whaling, they would be motivated to treat all whales in the ocean as "theirs", and treat them as a sustainable fishery. I'm skeptical though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:42PM
> If Japan is the only country whaling
Comment #542821 says that Iceland and Norway are whaling.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:25PM
in my humble opinion, japan can go whale-meat hunting once there are sooo many whales that they actually appear off the coast of japan, like they used to .. before they were hunted to near extinction.
the idea, to sail literally half way around the globe (Antarctica) via diesel and then back whilst running a big ol' freezer aboard is a bit ... crazy?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:20PM
If they want to start this horrendous practice, bomb the bastards. There is no place for this sort of behaviour in the modern world.