Hat tip to John Lynch, where you can find a lively commentary on this issue.
“Australia’s government on Thursday released graphic pictures of Japanese hunters harpooning whales and dragging the bleeding carcasses onto a ship near Antarctica, calling it evidence of “indiscriminate” slaughter.
Japan denied one of the photographs showed a mother and its calf being killed, and accused Australian officials and media of spreading propaganda that could damage ties between the two nations.
The images were the latest salvo in the new Australian government’s stepped-up campaign against Japan’s annual whale hunt, which resumed recently after being interrupted by environmental activists who chased the fleet through icy waters at the far south of the world.” – Read the rest of the story at CNN.com
Below is a video that is very graphic in nature, but is real. I’m posting it below the fold so you can choose whether or not you want to look at it.
Scientific research my ass.
you know what?
i don’t what all this crap about animal cruelty is coming from…
what the hell is the difference between catching a whale versus killing a deer, cow, tuna, salmon, chicken!??!!?
these environmentalists are merely using the human emotion by depicting that these whale hunters are the only ones that are inflicting pain of animals…
I promise that butchering a cow is not a pleasant experience for the cow…this world is getting crazy…since when was hunting an animal wrong?
pre-emptively…yesi understand its for research but i’m questioning the fact that this restriction was put in place to begin with…
i can’t imagine what peta would do if they went to Korea and saw how they prepare dogs to be killed…
The world isn’t running out of cattle or deer.
world’s not running out of minke whales either…they are actually the most abundant species of whale in the world…
and they caught 50 fin whales…which are andangered because they eat garbage that’s dumped into the ocean…
get it straight boy
The problem is three fold. First, is that this is all being conducted under the guise of scientific research which it is most definitely not. Second, is whether the species being taken are on CITES or IUCN which may whales are. Third, is that Japan is a member of IWC which has questioned this practice repeatedly. Indeed, Japan has proposed that most of the northern hemisphere population of Minke whales (Baleanoptera acutorostrata) and the western North Pacific population of Bryde’s whales (Balaenoptera edeni) be down-listed from Appendix I to Appendix II, enabling international trade under certain conditions which is direct conflict with CITES.
or, apparently, chickens.
To follow up on Craig’s comment, it is as much an issue of scientific and political integrity. Research from the lab of Palumbi and others have found endangered whale meat being sold in japanese markets under the guise of sushi, or occasionally sold as some other whale meat that isn’t endangered.