The Case for Emotional Whaling

(Artist credit:  Howie Cooke at Surfers for Cetaceans)

This is one of the other things I wanted to write about today.  Japan states that people need to take "the emotion out of whaling." 

Does anyone else see the blatant hypocrisy of everything the Japan government is stating in this article? Maybe it's just me, but here I go stepping back on my personal opinionated soapbox: 

(1)  "Mr Nakano said only through accepting that Japan is conducting scientific research on whales in the Southern Ocean can the debate move forward."

Scientific research?  Please explain to me why you need to cull thousands of whales annually just to do research?  For what?  Are your scientists so inept that after years of killing thousands upon thousands you still don't know what you're researching?  Where are the peer to peer review articles?  What epiphanies have blown your mind thus far that would also blow the rest of humanity's mind that we are supposedly in the dark about?  Please educate us poor ignorant souls. 

(2)  "But Mr Nakano said Japanese people were not emotional about the debate and most were not even aware of the details of the issue."

I'm just taking a wild wild WILD guess here.  But is it possible that your citizens are unaware of these issues because there is censorship in your country's media on this matter?  Perhaps I'm blind, but I'm not seeing much transparency on your part here.  It seems that much information is withheld from the population and the only way they seem to find out anything is via outside media and organizations.  Examples:  The movie The Cove.  Many were unaware of what goes on in Taiji until this movie.  Organizations such as Sea Shepherd and Save Japan Dolphins have certainly worked their asses off to bring world wide attention to these matters.  They deserve credit for this.  If you want to tell your side of the story, then do so and back it up with full transparency.

(3)  'We have to try to understand what are the differences and what is the problem,'' he said.

''And we have to try to find a way based on a calm environment and based on the scientific."

You guys KNOW what the differences are and what the problems are.  Many people are anti whaling and anti cetacean captivity because of several reasons.  Among them are that cetaceans are becoming endangered and in some species are now extinct due to you hunting them to this point.  Another is that you guys blame the whales and dolphins for the fish depletion in the seas without taking any responsibility for the fact that you guys are the problem with the overfishing.  Blaming the cetaceans is a cop out and speaks glaringly of your own character, ego, and greed.

Calm environment based on the scientific?  Ok.  Since you love the scientific so much, why don't your scientists peruse all the scientific evidence that has been out there for quite some time now and is becoming so commonly well known now that more and more people are currently on board to protect the whales and dolphins and to give them rights.  There is strong irrefutable scientific evidence that cetaceans are of a higher intelligence, with strong social and cultural associations, and are self aware.  Various scientists from various countries back up these claims and research studies.  Are the Japanese scientists so special as to believe that their research is the correct one and no one else's studies are worthy of your attention and acknowledgement?

(4) "Mr Nakano insisted that vigorous anti-whaling campaigner Sea Shepherd must be treated as separate from the wider whaling debate.    He said the environment group's tactics are violent and unacceptable.  Diplomacy will not work with the group."

Violent and unacceptable?  So killing whales and dolphins violently and inhumanely or capturing them in violent ways to sell off to the highest aquarium bidder is acceptable?  How is this not hypocritical on your part?   You can't say that the SSCS is violent when you guys are violent as well.  Does the Ady Gil boat come to mind?  How about the fact that in last year's Southern Ocean trip and again in this year's trip, there were at least two incidents that I'm aware of where none of your ships offered to help any of the SSCS crew that were endangered out in the waters.  

And lest we forget, allegations have been coming out for years that representatives from Japan that attend the IWC meetings are forking out millions of dollars to blackmail and bribe certain countries and/or people to vote their way.  And we're supposed to be calm, unemotional, and diplomatic with you?

Diplomacy goes both ways bucko. 

You're not in this for your pride or culture.  You're in it for the money.  You seem to not care that the increasingly higher levels of mercury found in cetacean meat that you are feeding to your citizens is either making many people violently ill or killing them.  Where's your scientific research on that?  Why does it take outside scientists to present this evidence to you as proof and you still ignore it?

You can't pick and choose certain scientific evidence to suit your agenda to kill off more whales and dolphins.  To do so shouldn't surprise you in knowing your government has earned the well deserved reputation as cetacean killers and as a country that appears to only care about themselves without any regard to the rest of the world that shares this planet and her oceans with you.

Fewer and fewer people are buying into your lies.  Either change with the times and accept all the scientific evidence out there supporting the movement that cetaceans deserve rights and deserve to be a protected species, or start proving your own scientific evidence for all the killing and selling to the highest bidders you do.