Captain Ahab is Gonna Be MAD

[Big Don]

Japan might kill world's only white whale

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/12/eawhale112.xml
By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 3:01pm GMT 12/11/2007


Australians fear that the world's only known white humpback whale could be slaughtered as Japan's whaling fleet prepares to embark on its annual hunt in the Southern Ocean.
The unique male whale, named Migaloo - an Aboriginal word for "white fella" - has become a celebrity in Australia since being spotted for the first time in 1991.

Each year Migaloo - along with thousands of other humpbacks - migrates from the icy seas of Antarctica to the warm shallows of the South Pacific and the Great Barrier Reef.

A few months later the whales, the females leading their newly-born calves, return to Antarctica.

The arrival of 45ft-long Migaloo - believed to be the only completely white humpback in the world - is keenly anticipated by whale watchers along Australia's east coast.

 

[Steel Tiger]

This really annoys me. The Japanese continue to hunt whales for 'scientific research'. Its funny how all the meat ends up in the markets. The most annoying thing is that younger Japan does not eat whale meat.

I had thought that moratorium meant a cessation of activity, but clearly when translated into Japanese it means something else.

It would be just like the Japanese Fisheries Agency to specifically target the white whale. This is the same organisation that a few years ago described Minke whales as the cockroaches of the sea.

Thanks to the terrorist hysteria that has gripped our government we will soon have some shiny new missile destroyers and maybe we can use them to 'protect' the Japanese whaling fleet if it thinks it can kill protected species in our territorial waters.


Arrgh! It just burns me up, what the pursuit of the dollar (yen in this case) is doing to our planet.

 

[tellner]

And the 'research' they're doing seems to have two aims

1. To see how long they can suckle off the Japanese governmental teat given plummeting demand for the product
2. To figure out how many whales they can kill in a day

 

[MA-Caver]

I recall reading in Peter Benchley's "Jaws" a conversation between animal lover Hooper and professional fisherman Quint, where they argued about Quint being willing to take just about anything that he catches and uses it for his benefit, regardless that it's on the endangered species list or not.
Quint countered with the Japanese wonton fishing habits (similar to his own) and how if Hooper went after them they'd tell him to take a flying **** to the moon because they got mouths to feed...

In that regard Quint was correct about the Japanese's mentality towards using the vast resources we call our oceans to feed their country. They've been doing it for centuries on end and with the advent of more powerful ships and weaponry they can harvest more from the sea's seemingly endless bounty. They feel that they're just ONE country who is left hunting whales and thus they're not hurting anyone else or hurting the current fish/whale population.

This is the mentality of say a trout fisherman who doesn't apply the catch-release method of fishing. Eventually he'll empty out the river/lake of fish because he's not allowing for re-population to occur.

Whales are the monarchs of the sea. Apex predators in every sense. The only thing that feeds off (live) whales are orcas and man. Man in his greed had nearly decimated the population off the planet. It's only NOW that we realize the animal's importance to the ecosystem and how that each and every single one helps the rest of the ocean maintain the balance of huge fish populations.

The Japanese fishermen will indeed take the opportunity to harvest this extremely rare and beautiful animal if it presents itself a good target, because it's just one more to add to the bunch. That it's unique probably won't matter to them. I find that odd in a way that they have this mentality because of their cutural reverence for things like this. Probably 100 years ago or even 50 years ago it would've been seen as a deity of sorts, and that killing it would've brought bad luck.

The enviro-terrorists or eco-terrorists don't help matters neither by attacking these men who are simply trying to make a living. Sure they've been frustrated at the lack of results of simply putting themselves between the harpoons and the whales; I've read stories where some have had their scalps nearly taken off as russian whalers went ahead and shot their harpoons anyway and still taken the animals. But taking it to the next level of attacking the harvesting/harpoon boats probably isn't going to make the fishermen change their minds.

Still I hope that this one beautiful special animal will be spared the carnage of this year's (and future year's) hunt.

One can only pray.