Oh there's only like 200 whales left, might as well finish them off - icelandic gov.
this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Minke has a minimum population estimate of 17000, so you are a bit off there. https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/2022-08/Com%20Minke%20Whale-Can%20E%20Coast%20Stock_SAR%202021.pdf
Fuck these guys.
How many battery chickens do you need to unalive to feed the same number of people as one minke whale?
I would highly recommend the recent Freakonomics Radio series about whaling. It's Episodes 549-551 and the bonus episode from 2023-08-06. If you're firmly against killing any living creature (or at least sentient creatures), I highly doubt it will change your mind (and I don't think that it should or that it tries to), but I also think it is really fascinating learning about the history of the whaling industry and hearing the perspective of a modern whaler in the bonus episode. Putting aside the obvious ethical issues with killing sentient creatures, it's interesting to consider things like whether there's a sustainable level of whaling, what a sustainable quota would look like, and how much we're in competition with certain whale species for harvesting fish as food for our own species. I personally appreciated how unbiased Freakonomics tried to be in their discussion of the topic.
Idk man. Whales are literally sentient, have culture, families, and fucking language with grammar.
I'm all for eating fish and cows and most animals. But whales are basically people that happen to live in the water. I can't get on board with that.
Wolves too. They have their own cultures, wars, families, even special techniques like having one wolf chase goats up gullies on glaciers, while other wolves ski down the chutes to intercept the goats.
And humans mowed down the entire pack from helicopter. Recently, Montana massacred their packs in a similar way, killing over 100 wolves. It's stomach churning. I've read a couple books on wolves, and some are so sad because the wolves are way too human when you give them more than a passing glance.
They are....unsettlingly smart. Which makes it all the more tragic when someone traps one and shoots it while trapped, and the wolf knows what's going to happen, and calls out one final low goodbye as the human raises the gun. Jesus. I had to put that book down.
Whaling is no different then fishing as far as sustainability goes and ethically a whale is no different then a cow. If you have no problem with killing cows, you should have no problem killing whales, assuming it is done sustainably.
It takes a lot less time to grow a new cow than it does to grow a new whale.
Sure and that is taken into account with the sustainability. While you can harvest something like a billion cows a year plus cows are domesticated the same concept applies to whale but it may be only a few thousand a year.
Ah yes "sustainability". Whaling is such a sustainable industry that basically every civilized nation has banned it. That's okay though, we've proven that we're really good at farming and fishing sustainably, so I'm sure we'll be just as good at whaling. We definitely aren't fishing the oceans to extinction, or releasing millions of tons of methane from factory cattle farming.
Oh wait...
Whaling is such a sustainable industry that basically every civilized nation has banned it.
Since when exactly are unsustainable industries banned?
Lol wut. There is no sustainable way to raise animals for slaughter in this overpopulated planet.
I get it's probably because people just aren't used to the idea of eating whale, but it's odd you're being downvoted when like that's kinda the stance I think a lot of environmentalists have here in Norway, though I think the comparison is more to like venison than cows, because venison's hunted but cows are raised. In the grand scheme of things, the beef industry does way more damage and has more ethical concerns than the strictly regulated whaling industry and we should be focusing our attention on that. I could be completely off though - I ain't from Oslo and whale is regularly available on the supermarket shelves in the season so I'm obviously somewhat biased here. I know a lot of people have ethical concerns but like, I don't get it. Pigs are smarter than a whale, but people aren't upset at pork chops.
Also idk how reliable it is because obviously it's a biased source, but according to the fishing industry pound for pound whale's actually way better for the environment than any farmed red meat because you're, y'know, not raising it.
Yea wild-hunted venison is probably a much better comparison, I'd probably agree that whale meat is better for the environment then farmed meat but ultimately you have to account for scale. It would be impossible for the world to live on whale meat alone, much like it would be impossible for the world to live on fish, or non-farmed crops. It's good to have a variety of food sources both for culinary enjoyment as well as food security and sustainability.
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Funny you should take for granted no one has a problem with fishing, a practice absolutely chocked full of problems, environmental and otherwise. Also do you not realize a lot of people also has issues with killing cows?
Sure. And even more people have absolutely no problem with killing cows and eating them daily. Which is why I had the qualifier that if you don't have a problem with cows you shouldn't have a problem with whales. If you do have a problem with cows, that's fine, and being against whaling is also fine.
As far as the fishing industry, it is chock full of environmental and sustainability concerns, but it can absolutely be done in an environmentally sustainable way, must like whaling could.
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There's a sustainable level of eating dogs, cats and drink human blood too. Should we open dog farms to create more jobs?
Why not? I dont think that dog farms would be that profitable considering the price of dog food, but I dont see a reason why it should be illegal.
Dog farms are no more unethical than pig farms.
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I've only heard about perfumes that once contained whale juices? ...What do these whales produce in terms of raw and or commercial material. or is it for sport these days? not that any of it is okay.
Yes this they used to use wheel spinal fluid as a base for perfumes. Because of course they did.
I think that practise was banned years ago mostly because it isn't remotely sustainable.
Iceland has this weird thing about wailing. You see all these whaling ships right alongside whale tour boats. It's like they sort of get it but can't quite get over the culture of whale hunting.
Which in fairness is part of their culture but they have a Costco there now as well so...
spinal fluid as a base for perfumes
I can't find any evidence of that. Are you perhaps thinking of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris made from stones in the whale digestive system?
They just watched Avatar 2 and went with it.
I'm guessing this is what the >!Avatar: Way of the water thing was based on!<
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Meat. Whale is tasty. Yum yum yummy in my tum tum tummy. Not even joking. People like whale. It's a very versatile and lean meat which is very high in omega 3, iron and protein.... And mercury but never mind that. Just try it next time you're in a country that hunts them.
Actually, don't try it. Just encourages hunting.
Unless you are a full vegan, you have no business condemning responsible whaling.
Sanction them. I love Iceland but the way I see it, sanction them and tell them to knock it off. Capitalism sucks but use whatever few means we have in that system to at least right some wrongs.
You gonna demand sanctions for every single country that hunts a wild species that's classified as "least concern"? I think you'll struggle to find any countries that don't pull shit that's at least as inhumane and environmentally harmful as killing some 100-150 whales per year.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Animal rights groups and environmentalists have described as “hugely disappointing” the news that Iceland has given the green light for commercial whaling to resume, after a temporary ban introduced this year came to an end.
The Icelandic government said there will be tougher regulations in place – including better equipment, training and increased monitoring – but campaigners said these were “pointless and irrelevant” because whales will still suffer agonising deaths.
In a statement to the Guardian, Iceland’s minister of foodand agriculture, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, said: “With the expiry of the ban, the ministry is now implementing strict and detailed new requirements for hunting including equipment, methods and increased supervision.
The groups stressed that whales already face myriad threats, including pollution, entanglement in fishing nets, ship strikes and the climate crisis.
Ruud Tombrock, the European director of the Humane Society International, said: “It is inexplicable that minister Svavarsdóttir has dismissed the unequivocal scientific evidence that she herself commissioned, demonstrating the brutality and cruelty of commercial whale killing.
In June, Svavarsdóttir suspended whaling until 31 August after a government-commissioned report concluded that the hunt does not comply with Iceland’s animal welfare legislation.
The original article contains 873 words, the summary contains 189 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
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Who cares if the whales die horribly and the species goes extinct, right? Oh yeah, new "regulations" make it "good" to do the same shit somehow, so no problem.
Know why they're called right whales? It's because they're the right ones to hunt.
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