Most of the whales taken by the Japanese are Minke whales as far as information on the internet says.

Minke whale populations have been estimated between around 500,000 and just over a 1,000,000 in the southern hemisphere (back in the mid 80's). Each year the Japanese whalers say they take around 1000, give or take a few.

The Minke whales conservation status is as low as it goes (Least concern).

I think what Sea Shepard does is wrong. They are putting other people lives at danger.

I'm not saying whaling is good, just that maybe it is not as bad for the whales population as it is made out to be (and that problems such as shark finning should get more attention).

Its just popularism, nothing else, I sit here with my whales tooth that has been passed down from generations, My Dad is Fijian and the whales tooth is the most sacred valuable object there; priceless in fact. They still ate them, as well as humans, Its humans who put the value on these things, even themselves.

Cant stop laughing at the bloke who reckons our 80% of our oxygen comes from the ocean,while some does (cyanobacteria) most of it comes from plants; they take in CO2 and release oxygen, so if our CO2 levels go up, we get greener healthier plants that yield untold wealth.

Yes the catch other whales but it sounds like the Minke Whale is in the lead by a long shot. Sea Shepards website uses an approximation of 800,000 of them-it seems noone really knows, but the general consesus is that their numbers are fairly large, I'm no marine biologist buy I'm not sure what effect/if any removing 1000 whales from a population of several hundred thousand will have on the gene pool.

The other whales seems to be taken in very small numbers <100 , if at all. The JARPA II thingo they use to hunt the whales says the can take 950 Minkes, and 50 Fin whales and 50 humpbacks per season. Unfortunately these whales do have population issues.
Fin Whales are endangered, the IUCN redlist has Humpbacks as of Least Concern (due to their increasing population trend, along with the criteria for being vulnerable getting tougher...). Something should change here definately.

There have been no injuries yet. These guys are throwing acid at people, they are ramming boats in freezing cold waters. They were lucky none of their own people were injured when they got their boat chopping in half. Amd it does sound like they do good in other parts of the world, which is great.



Shirts like these shows they are proud to be undertaking reckless activities. And no matter what someone says, ramming a ship with the intent to sink it, especially in the souther ocean, is not very bright. I'm all for protecting species and saving the environment etc and it should be done. Just not in ways like this.

I don't see the issue with a sustainable approach to whaling, which is what appears to be happening with the Minke whales. If they stop hunting the Fins and Humpbacks and allowed their populations to recover, that'd be great.

It is also thought Krill populations are going to be a serious issue to whale populations in the future.

Kaz1983 said...

I'm changing my tune, I still think that that the Sea Shepard use do put themselves in danger and the whalers as well I'm sticking to that but nobody put a gun to the head of the whalers to be there and it seems just from reading Jbshack's posts and watching The Cove it seems that the Sea Shepard's are in various different projects that all don't involve ramming Japanese boats but seriously I think they are doing more good than harm.

And you're right, noone is putting a gun to the heads of the fisherman. But they don't make the calls on what extent of whaling can happen. It is just their job and they are trying to make a living. I think they are the wrong people to be attacking.

personally i don't have an issue with eating whale as long as it's sustainable. but if people feel so strongly they should target the source of the problem. if there was no demand for whale meat there would be no whale fishing. the money these sea shepherd idiots waste campaigning in the southern ocean would be more effective if it was spent in japan on education/advertising.

charging around the ocean throwing paint is just self-indulgent and childish

As for the Sea Shepperd and it's crew. Definitely a bunch of unskilled and useless hippies without a clue as to what they are doing. Incompetent doesn't evne begin to describe them.

Still...having said that...they had a huge positive effect on protecting sharks around the world and thus I cannot truly hate them

*sorry, still early...bad spelling*

I did point out that the above skill set still enabled them to perform a search and rescue in condition's that the NZ navy couldn't Still not a single major injury I do think the facts talk for themselves. Also please remember this is the 7th campaign to the southern ocean.

Part of the problem for SSCS is the way they market themselves. They portray themselves as pirates. That works because when the poaches see them coming they panic. BUT sadly that also turns people against them in some circles.

Also the Animal planet show sells them as a little hopeless as well. But we are talking about a skillful bunch of passionate crew that are simply doing what the governments of the world should be doing.

Sorry to be a Post whore but want the truth to be known, not just hearsay

There a few people who are under the misconception that the japanese can be "educated" about conservation and whaling. I work on Japanese mines all over the place and believe me education aint gonna happen with this mob. They have a totally different mindset to us.
My opinion is sea shepard is the only answer, Garret and Brown are useless against the inscrutable japanese. Total wast of effort in negotiating with them.
W

OK after reading Scuba's claims, I wasn't sure about weather the ocean produces more than half of the worlds oxygen and at first kinda thought it was bs to be honest so I goggled it and found this from the Nat Geo website.. it seems to say half of the oxygen is created by our oceans.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0607_040607_phytoplankton.html

jbshack said...

Kaz1983 said...

OK after reading Scuba's claims, I wasn't sure about weather the ocean produces more than half of the worlds oceans and at first kinda thought it was bs to be honest so I goggled it and found this from the Nat Geo website.. it seems to say half of the oxygen is created by our oceans.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0607_040607_phytoplankton.html

Here's another that says more than half.

www.ecology.com/2011/09/12/important-organism/

So Suba was right!!

Dont take life too seriously, no one gets out alive
Im sure they thought the world was going to end when the Dodo became extinct too.

Toots said...

Dont take life too seriously, no one gets out alive
Im sure they thought the world was going to end when the Dodo became extinct too.

I agree but i would love for my kids to be out boating with there kids and be able to show them a whale or two, to see dolphins in the wild with there kids, instead of history books like we have to for so many other now instinct creatures

I say we don't own the earth, we just have it on lone from our children and i would like to pass it on the best way i can.