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Does this mean that Japan will now stop their “research” whale hunts? If it doesn’t, I am worried about how much this commitment is real.
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
Does this mean that Japan will now stop their “research” whale hunts?
If it doesn’t, I am worried about how much this commitment is real.
- jbay808 6y agoSome Japanese people I speak with who work in the marine industry believe that whales are a major threat to fish stocks and are gobbling up all the fish so that not enough is left for humans. I don't believe that's true and make an effort to persuade them otherwise. But at the very least I'm sure that many Japanese people (based on what they have been taught) earnestly do not see an incongruity between whaling and a desire to protect the oceans.
- valarauko 6y agoJapan has resumed commercial whaling since July 2019 https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/asia/japan-first-whale-catch-31-years-trnd/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/asia/japan-first-whale-catch-...
- qart 6y agoWhy single out Japan? Canada, Greenland, Faroe Islands, and Norway all exceed it. Canada and Norway are signatories of this new commitment. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling#Whaling_catches_by_location https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling#Whaling_catches_by_loc...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- throw0101a 6y agoThe only people who do whaling in Canada are the First Nations, and they do it in Canada's territorial waters: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Canada * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_whaling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_whaling They generally eat it, make art, and perhaps use parts for traditional clothing. Japan on the other hand (a) has no Indigenous peoples following their traditional ways, (b) often violates the waters of other countries, and (c) has no basis for scientific inquiry (as ruled by the ICJ): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Japan You don't see Intuit fisherman in the Southern Ocean off the coast Antarctic, but you do see Japanese fishing boats.
- Danieru 6y ago(a) Wat. The Japanese people are just as indigenous as Canada's. Just because a people did not get conquered does not make them less indigenous. Unless your making a comment about the jomon...
- cgh 6y agoI thought the Ainu people were the original inhabitants of much of Japan? Or am I mistaken?
- naniwaduni 6y agoThe Ainu are believed to be descendants of the Joumon and related peoples, whose presence in the Japanese archipelago indeed precedes the introduction of the Yayoi people who are thought to be the main stock of the currently dominant ethnic group of Japan. The thing is, though, the latter arrivals were some 2~3000 years ago. For comparison, the Yayoi incursion not only predates not only the entire traceable history of the Inuit people, but also that of the (unrelated) Dorset culture that they're believed to have driven out. I'm not sure there's a principled metric by which Canada's whalers are "Indigenous peoples following their traditional ways" and nearly all Japanese people aren't.
- cgh 6y agoI agree with you. The whole "we were here first" argument tends to fall apart at a certain time horizon, almost like there's a statute of limitations on what constitutes "indigenous".
- ficklepickle 6y agoBecause the aboriginal people don't take more than they need and they use the entire animal. The Japanese are doing it for the meat ($$$) exclusively. Let's give the people that haven't destroyed their own environment a bit of leeway. IMO, a marker of intelligence isn't building rockets, it's not shitting where you eat.
- 6y ago
- Thlom 6y agoWhat is the problem with whaling if done in a sustainable way?
- gwbas1c 6y agoIs it sustainable or "sustainable?" (As in, not really sustainable, but spun so people think it's sustainable?)
- Thlom 6y agoAt current catch rates it's very sustainable.
- kleer001 6y agoCitations?
- TooDarkToRead 6y agoNo, cetaceans.
- ComputerGuru 6y agoThat’s genuinely funny but HN frowns on posts that are only jokes or puns, FYI.
- nullsense 6y agolmaooo
- Thlom 6y agoEven IWC says on their website that current catch rates are not a threat to whale populations. Fisheries (bycatch/entanglement) are a much bigger threat.
- fennecfoxen 6y agoWell, what's the problem with eating, say, gorillas, if done in a sustainable way? You don't need to be a card-carrying PETA vegan to find it quite off-putting to eat self-aware social animals with some of the world's largest brains.