Anyone Catch Whale Wars?

very entertaining show. some of the obvious stunts are a bit cheesy guy getting shot is fake, and hes a pretty big douche.

i like the outrage ive read about this show. by god, citizens going out of their way to enforce American, Japaneses, Australian, and UN law when the politicians of those countries fail to do so.

kind of ironic though that the Japanese cite UN sanctions allowing for research through whaling (a whopping 4 published articles for around 5k whales harvested).

at the same time the group on the show cites UN charter to justify their actions.

http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/37/a37r007.htm

stuff at the bottom if anyone cares.

as much as the whole scientific research b.s. that japan is using to continue whaling, id rather see japan’s politicians stand up to their own whaling industry (ICR) instead of hippies sailing around putting others and their own lives in danger.

id say 80% support for citizens standing up to govn’t and industry to enforce laws, i mean cmon they were wailing in a whale SANCTUARY. and whales are keeping plankton populations in check and there aren’t many left.

20% against because the people have obvious personal agendas beyond enforcing whaling laws and reducing whaling.

somewhat ironically ive watched it every time while eating sushi. crunchy rolls rule.

Does anyone know where I can get some whale meat? How about spotted owl?

[quote]PRCalDude wrote:
Does anyone know where I can get some whale meat? How about spotted owl?[/quote]

Any supermarket in Japan.

I have access to whale meat anytime I want. It’s pretty over-rated, I think; though the Japanese are almost religious in their desire to continue killing whales.

No spotted owl here, but it’s probably just an availability issue, rather than some underlying moral dictate against it.

[quote]PB-Crawl wrote:
as much as the whole scientific research b.s. that japan is using to continue whaling, id rather see japan’s politicians stand up to their own whaling industry (ICR) instead of hippies sailing around putting others and their own lives in danger.
[/quote]

Ha! Good luck with this. Any politician that takes on the Japanese whaling industry is not going to last very long.

[quote]Cortes wrote:
PRCalDude wrote:
Does anyone know where I can get some whale meat? How about spotted owl?

Any supermarket in Japan.

I have access to whale meat anytime I want. It’s pretty over-rated, I think; though the Japanese are almost religious in their desire to continue killing whales.

No spotted owl here, but it’s probably just an availability issue, rather than some underlying moral dictate against it.[/quote]

Well, at least we can expect that the Japanese will figure out some way to breed or clone the whales when they kill too many. They’re already starting to do it with the bluefin tuna.

How large of an impact would removing the apex predator from the food chain have?

Not much predates on whales. Krill might become more numerous but I think they’re declining anyway.

[quote]LiftSmart wrote:
How large of an impact would removing the apex predator from the food chain have?

Not much predates on whales. Krill might become more numerous but I think they’re declining anyway.[/quote]

Removing an apex predator can have crazy unintended consequences, because EVERYTHING in the food chain below them can be affected.

Maybe something else that eats krill will prosper, leading to a bloom in sharks, and the bloom in sharks will lead to a devastation in a fishing stock, and a whole country will starve.

Hard to say without study.

[quote]HoratioSandoval wrote:
LiftSmart wrote:
How large of an impact would removing the apex predator from the food chain have?

Not much predates on whales. Krill might become more numerous but I think they’re declining anyway.

Removing an apex predator can have crazy unintended consequences, because EVERYTHING in the food chain below them can be affected.

Maybe something else that eats krill will prosper, leading to a bloom in sharks, and the bloom in sharks will lead to a devastation in a fishing stock, and a whole country will starve.

Hard to say without study.[/quote]

Weren’t whales almost driven to extinction ~150 years ago?

Were there any major impacts on ocean ecology from that?

What about the poor plankton? Oh that’s right, they’re not cute, cuddly, and “intelligent” like whales. I’m so sick of these hippies picking and choosing species they deem to be so great.

As for Whale Wars, or as I like to call it “The Fail Boat”, I cheer for the Japanese whalers every chance I get. They’re following the rules while being attacked by pirates, captained by a complete gutless wonder.

The people that are on the Sea Shepherd are lunatics. Plain and simple. What I take away from watching some of the episodes, especially the one where they board the Japanese ship, and then claim that they were ‘taken hostage’ is that these nuts care more about the lives of whales than they do of human beings; even their own ship mates.

This show is disgusting. As far as I am concerned Green Peace should be treated like the pirates they are. No mercy!

[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
What about the poor plankton? Oh that’s right, they’re not cute, cuddly, and “intelligent” like whales. I’m so sick of these hippies picking and choosing species they deem to be so great.

[/quote]

that might make sense if plankton are an endangered species nearing extinction but they are not, so instead you just come off looking like a moron. So no, its not about picking and choosing.

But yes, the ship is a boat of douche.

[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
They’re following the rules while being attacked by pirates. [/quote]

you obviously know nothing about the topic at hand by your comments. They are whaling in a whale sanctuary, one deemed not only by their own country but every other major country and the UN.

and thats aside from the “research” con job excuse they are using to whale in the first place.

if the whalers stuck to places deemed ok to whale by theyre own damn country, the show would not exist, and these people would be immediately arrested when they land in europe, but they are not.

[quote]PB-Crawl wrote:
Doug Adams wrote:
What about the poor plankton? Oh that’s right, they’re not cute, cuddly, and “intelligent” like whales. I’m so sick of these hippies picking and choosing species they deem to be so great.

that might make sense if plankton are an endangered species nearing extinction but they are not, so instead you just come off looking like a moron. So no, its not about picking and choosing.

But yes, the ship is a boat of douche.[/quote]

So a population of 300,000-700,000 minke whales gets a designation of being endangered?

[quote]LiftSmart wrote:
HoratioSandoval wrote:
LiftSmart wrote:
How large of an impact would removing the apex predator from the food chain have?

Not much predates on whales. Krill might become more numerous but I think they’re declining anyway.

Removing an apex predator can have crazy unintended consequences, because EVERYTHING in the food chain below them can be affected.

Maybe something else that eats krill will prosper, leading to a bloom in sharks, and the bloom in sharks will lead to a devastation in a fishing stock, and a whole country will starve.

Hard to say without study.

Weren’t whales almost driven to extinction ~150 years ago?

Were there any major impacts on ocean ecology from that?[/quote]

alaska was impacted big time. with low whale populations, killer whales switched food targets to smaller marine mammals like otters and seals. which in turn led to a crustacean explosion that wiped out Alaska’s kelp forests.

in the antarctic lots of penguin species switched to krill from fish after whale populations fell, but even now those penguin populations are falling from receding ice levels which are vital for krill populations.

its hard to say what will happen, deep ocean ecosystems will most likely adapt because they’re lest disturbed by humans, but i’d imagine inland ecosystems will have the biggest impact because theyre already so damaged (majority of coral reefs are dead ect.)

either way, krill and plankton blooms are already happening, but large scale blooms will basically wipe out the oceans, which will suck becuase the oceans are such HUGE co2 sinks

and no fish oil :confused:

[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
PB-Crawl wrote:
Doug Adams wrote:
What about the poor plankton? Oh that’s right, they’re not cute, cuddly, and “intelligent” like whales. I’m so sick of these hippies picking and choosing species they deem to be so great.

that might make sense if plankton are an endangered species nearing extinction but they are not, so instead you just come off looking like a moron. So no, its not about picking and choosing.

But yes, the ship is a boat of douche.

So a population of 300,000-700,000 minke whales gets a designation of being endangered?[/quote]

they are considered “Near Threatened” yes, given their populations used to be in the 10s of millions. But to think they are only hunting mink would be a folly.

If we could only convince japanese people to eat hippies…

problem solved

[quote]baretta wrote:
If we could only convince japanese people to eat hippies…

problem solved[/quote]

We should try injecting hippies with whale flavoring and selling them to the Japanese.

The Japanese have been whaling for over 2000 years. The stinking hippies on the sea shepherd are pretty much cultural imperialists attempting to force their views on another culture.

[quote]Regular Gonzalez wrote:
The Japanese have been whaling for over 2000 years.[/quote]

Pretty sure there weren’t 130,000,000 of them back then.