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Faroe Islands and Norway catch more whales than Japan [1] but for some reason don't receive nearly the same level of outrage. [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org

• hugg 7y ago
  The outrage is at the announcement that one more country is now allowing it. But you probably knew that.
• ben_w 7y ago
  That is curious. I had known about Iceland hunting whales and was upset about it but I wasn’t aware that Norway also did this. Also I forgot the Faroe Islands existed.
• at-fates-hands 7y ago
  The outrage is that they're whaling in a conservation area in the Southern Ocean. The other reason is other countries have determined their "scientific" whaling has no actual scientific basis: Japan is not the only nation to hunt whales. Norway has a commercial operation in its own waters, for example. But what infuriates conservationists is that Japan is hunting and killing whales in a conservation zone, the Southern Ocean whaling sanctuary, that surrounds Antarctica. Japan claims that it does so only for scientific purposes. Then, a few years ago, the International Court of Justice – at the instigation of Australia and New Zealand – ruled that the country’s whaling plan had no scientific basis. Japan was forced to halt whale hunting and had to come back with a plan to carry out “scientific whaling” in the region. This now involves catching only 330 minkes, and no humpbacks or fin whales. It was an important victory for conservationists. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/23/sea-shepherd-loses-antarctic-battle-japan-whale-hunters https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/23/sea-shep...
  • kgwgk 7y ago
    The news is that now they will do commercial whaling in Japan rather than “scientific” whaling in Antartica.
• mc32 7y ago
  What I don’t get is that Minkes are not endangered (least concern), so I might go along with that, so why do they also target Brydes and Sei which don’t have healthy populations? That’s a bad move that will serve to embolden (rightly) people who are against whaling.
• rando444 7y ago
  It should also be noted that the majority of the whale meat produced by these countries is sold to Japan.
• sandworm101 7y ago
  That another country is also evil doesn't make what Japan is doing any better. They both need to stop. There is increasing evidence that whales have a huge role in climate change. Their poop feeds plankton which in turn absorbs carbon. And their physical bodies when they die sink, moving significant amounts of carbon to the bottom where is stays in that ecosystem far away from the atmosphere. If the Japanese and Norwegians don't care about killing such magnificent animals for food, perhaps they can be taught to value them as ecological partners in the fight against climate change.
  • pathseeker 7y ago
    > That another country is also evil doesn't make what Japan is doing any better. They both need to stop. While true, it looks bad for people who are on the fence and/or are ambivalent. If the people expressing the outrage aren't outraged about the whaling in the Faroe islands, it looks like they don't really care about stopping whaling but instead just want to protest for the sake of it (or they're racists against the Japanese, etc).
    • sandworm101 7y ago
      It is true that I am probably not angry enough about the Faroe whale slaughter, but they are much further away from me than Japan. I live on Canada's west coast, where Greenpeace began. There are far more flights between Vancouver and Tokyo than Vancouver and the Faroe Islands, and many more business and government connections. So it should be no surprise that I am more angry at Japan. I am also no fan of the Canadian arctic whale harvest. That it is classified as "aboriginal whaling", and is much smaller, makes no difference to me. Dead whales are dead whales regardless who is killing them.
      • mtnGoat 7y ago
        I believe there are still occasional whale hunts in the strait of juan de fuca, by the Makah Trube from Neah Bay.
  • sithadmin 7y ago
• peterwwillis 7y ago
  Fun facts: - Japan learned modern whaling (and bought ships/tools) from Norway, over 100 years ago - Norway's last catch of Minke whales (the only whales they hunt, supposedly) was about 1,052, out of an estimated ~100,000. - Japan has recently hunted a variety of threatened and endangered species, such as Beaked, Minke, Bryde's, Sei, Northern Fin, Humpback, Sperm, Western Gray, and North Pacific Right. - A significant percentage of whales caught are by-catch of other fishing operations, which critics claim is often intentional. - Since 1988, Japan has caught 16,323 whales through "Special Permit Catches". - The research group that does the whaling gets its funding from the Japanese government, and Kyodo Senpaku, the company that processes and markets the whale meat. - The International Court of Justice declared in 2014 that Japan's whaling was not for any scientific purpose. From these facts, I gather that the problem is that Norway is catching a "reasonable" amount of whales that are not threatened, and that Japan was catching endangered and threatened species in large numbers and lying about the intention behind it.
• kamfc 7y ago
  What?! If I don't know about it, just imagine how many "average" people like me who are out of the loop when it comes to ocean animals. How can the world powers come together to sign a ban on this? This is awful.
  • ceejayoz 7y ago
    > How can the world powers come together to sign a ban on this? They did. Japan, Norway, etc. ignore it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Whaling_Commission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Whaling_Commissi...