Quote:
Originally Posted by Peanuto
The problem is not with the Japanese per se. Anyone who knows dick all about this topic would know it begins with the IWC. The International Whaling Commission. http://www.iwcoffice.org/ They set up their laws which protect only the larger species of whales. They limit killings on smaller whales for "medical research" but have no regulation on dolphins which are a smaller species of whale. The Japanese kill every whale possible within the legal bounds (which are setting the bar too high and slowly depleting populations) and then slaughter the fuck out of dolphins. Dolphins have all but disappeared in regions of japan and continue to be slaughtered daily. I am not a bleeding heart activist or a tree hugger. In fact I love to hunt and fish. A largely overlooked issue is what is happening with this dolphin meat. Dolphin meat contains levels of mercury roughly at 800x the legal limit. I forget the measurement unit but the legal level is 0.4 and dolphins have registered as 2000. They are killing the dolphins and packaging the meat as much more expensive and less toxic whale meat. In addition the dolphin fisheries in Japan have bought off entire towns to look the other way. Meanwhile they are providing the school system (until they were caught and the program was discontinued) with free lunches...guess what kind of meat. It all goes back to the top. Japan pays many nations to vote for their proposed laws in the IWC and until the IWC updates it's regs properly there will be massive issues. I'm not saying abolish whaling, but better moderation and monitoring needs to be made a priority for the IWC. |
I agree with you. What people need to realize here is that these crazy tree huggers aren't out there harrassing a few fishermen trying to make a living. They're attempting to stop large companies from raping natural resources for profit.
Governments have failed to do anything substantial about it, and without these guys making raising public awareness, there would probably be a lot more of it going on than there already is.
The IWC is responsible for what's going on through inaction and indifference to its own mission (regulation of the whaling industry).