Iceland allows whaling to resume in ‘massive step backwards’
Activists say that whales will still suffer agonising deaths despite new regulations and monitoring
Oh there's only like 200 whales left, might as well finish them off - icelandic gov.
Minke has a minimum population estimate of 17000, so you are a bit off there. https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/2022-08/Com%20Minke%20Whale-Can%20E%20Coast%20Stock_SAR%202021.pdf
Ah. So just a couple of whale hunting seasons away from extinction.
Why do you guys keep talking about Minke whales?
Read the fucking article. They're hunting fin whales, which are considered Vulnerable.
Can any Icelanders explain the point of this to me?
No we can not. This is fucked up. It's one rich guy's hobby:
And here is the asshole making a whole nation look bad yet again;
I'm not from Iceland, but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
I would highly recommend the recent Freakonomics Radio series about whaling. It's Episodes 549-551 and the bonus episode from 2023-08-06. If you're firmly against killing any living creature (or at least sentient creatures), I highly doubt it will change your mind (and I don't think that it should or that it tries to), but I also think it is really fascinating learning about the history of the whaling industry and hearing the perspective of a modern whaler in the bonus episode. Putting aside the obvious ethical issues with killing sentient creatures, it's interesting to consider things like whether there's a sustainable level of whaling, what a sustainable quota would look like, and how much we're in competition with certain whale species for harvesting fish as food for our own species. I personally appreciated how unbiased Freakonomics tried to be in their discussion of the topic.
Idk man. Whales are literally sentient, have culture, families, and fucking language with grammar.
I'm all for eating fish and cows and most animals. But whales are basically people that happen to live in the water. I can't get on board with that.
Whales are literally sentient, have culture, families, and fucking language with grammar.
They (cows) possess substantial problem-solving skills, enabling them to interact effectively with their environment. This intelligence isn't confined to the tangible realm; it also extends profoundly into the emotional sphere. Cows form intricate social relationships within their herd
As a meat eater the argument that we shouldn't eat "intelligent" animals is bull. The livestock we eat all display a higher/equal level of intelligence as your pets. Ultimately we don't eat certain animals because we like them and that's it.
Personally if you're going to eat meat you can't pick and choose which animal is ok to eat and which one isn't. It's either they all are or none of them are
Wolves too. They have their own cultures, wars, families, even special techniques like having one wolf chase goats up gullies on glaciers, while other wolves ski down the chutes to intercept the goats.
And humans mowed down the entire pack from helicopter. Recently, Montana massacred their packs in a similar way, killing over 100 wolves. It's stomach churning. I've read a couple books on wolves, and some are so sad because the wolves are way too human when you give them more than a passing glance.
They are....unsettlingly smart. Which makes it all the more tragic when someone traps one and shoots it while trapped, and the wolf knows what's going to happen, and calls out one final low goodbye as the human raises the gun. Jesus. I had to put that book down.
I couldn't agree more. It is a excellent overview of whaling. I highly recommend the series to anyone who feels strongly about whales.
Or even if one doesn’t feel strongly about whales. It is still a superb program.
Thanks for the rec!
Recently listened to it. Appreciate them looking at the various angles. The history bits are excellent, once again I learned things about people of colour which I wouldn't have otherwise.
I've actually been to Iceland several times, and once I took the chance to try whale after much assurance from a local that when it comes to ethics, it's fine and within quota. That said, I wish I had the willpower to be a vegetarian. It would be ideal to me if we no longer needed any animals to sustain ourselves. But some foods are just too good and don't have perfect replacements yet. I hope that with lab grown meats whale will also become an option. So that they can live free and full lives. Unless the one guy on the show was right about overpopulation. I didn't feel he was the best source. But wildlife management is a thing, especially since we're meddling in nature, so now we're responsible too. It's a tough and emotionally changed subject.
There's a sustainable level of eating dogs, cats and drink human blood too. Should we open dog farms to create more jobs?
Should we open dog farms to create more jobs?
Dog farms are no more unethical than pig farms.
Why not?
Whaling is no different then fishing as far as sustainability goes and ethically a whale is no different then a cow. If you have no problem with killing cows, you should have no problem killing whales, assuming it is done sustainably.
That's a pretty strong statement without any underlying argument. There are countless differences between whaling and slaughtering livestock. I'm not in favor of either one per se, but to say they're ethically identical is quite the leap.
I get it's probably because people just aren't used to the idea of eating whale, but it's odd you're being downvoted when like that's kinda the stance I think a lot of environmentalists have here in Norway, though I think the comparison is more to like venison than cows, because venison's hunted but cows are raised. In the grand scheme of things, the beef industry does way more damage and has more ethical concerns than the strictly regulated whaling industry and we should be focusing our attention on that. I could be completely off though - I ain't from Oslo and whale is regularly available on the supermarket shelves in the season so I'm obviously somewhat biased here. I know a lot of people have ethical concerns but like, I don't get it. Pigs are smarter than a whale, but people aren't upset at pork chops.
Also idk how reliable it is because obviously it's a biased source, but according to the fishing industry pound for pound whale's actually way better for the environment than any farmed red meat because you're, y'know, not raising it.
We have reason to believe whales are in the same ballpark as us. Also we should probably stop eating both but if we can't save both at least we may be able to keep folks from eating the whales.
Lol wut. There is no sustainable way to raise animals for slaughter in this overpopulated planet.
legalize hunting icelandic politicians instead
I've only heard about perfumes that once contained whale juices? ...What do these whales produce in terms of raw and or commercial material. or is it for sport these days? not that any of it is okay.
Yes this they used to use wheel spinal fluid as a base for perfumes. Because of course they did.
I think that practise was banned years ago mostly because it isn't remotely sustainable.
Iceland has this weird thing about wailing. You see all these whaling ships right alongside whale tour boats. It's like they sort of get it but can't quite get over the culture of whale hunting.
Which in fairness is part of their culture but they have a Costco there now as well so...
spinal fluid as a base for perfumes
I can't find any evidence of that. Are you perhaps thinking of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris made from stones in the whale digestive system?
ambergris? but i think that was only found in sperm whales
Sanction them. I love Iceland but the way I see it, sanction them and tell them to knock it off. Capitalism sucks but use whatever few means we have in that system to at least right some wrongs.
sanctions are only for [BAD COUNTRY], sorry
You gonna demand sanctions for every single country that hunts a wild species that's classified as "least concern"? I think you'll struggle to find any countries that don't pull shit that's at least as inhumane and environmentally harmful as killing some 100-150 whales per year.
Who cares if the whales die horribly and the species goes extinct, right? Oh yeah, new "regulations" make it "good" to do the same shit somehow, so no problem.
it's never about the planet. it's never about life on earth
it's always about "the economy"
The planet has burned to a crisp and society no longer exists, but for a very short moment we made a few shareholders slightly richer.
On the plus side everyone will shut the fuck up about claims that Chinese research ships are all disguised whaling vessels.
They never really stopped bitching about Japan until China's economy blew up. It'll be all about China until some other country joins the 10+ trillion GDP club.
Its not just economics, there's also a racism component. Even though the Japanese and South Koreans are treated by white westerners as "the good Asians", they're still kept out of the white westerner club by forms of cultural othering that can be hidden and deployed when convenient. Japanese food is amazing high cuisine (except they're barbarians that eat whales). Korean pop music is great (except they're all tricking us with their plastic surgery). Etc, etc.
China's main crime as far as this dynamic goes is exceeding the West economically while having so much cultural confidence that it can simply not give a fuck how the West judges it.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Animal rights groups and environmentalists have described as “hugely disappointing” the news that Iceland has given the green light for commercial whaling to resume, after a temporary ban introduced this year came to an end.
The Icelandic government said there will be tougher regulations in place – including better equipment, training and increased monitoring – but campaigners said these were “pointless and irrelevant” because whales will still suffer agonising deaths.
In a statement to the Guardian, Iceland’s minister of foodand agriculture, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, said: “With the expiry of the ban, the ministry is now implementing strict and detailed new requirements for hunting including equipment, methods and increased supervision.
The groups stressed that whales already face myriad threats, including pollution, entanglement in fishing nets, ship strikes and the climate crisis.
Ruud Tombrock, the European director of the Humane Society International, said: “It is inexplicable that minister Svavarsdóttir has dismissed the unequivocal scientific evidence that she herself commissioned, demonstrating the brutality and cruelty of commercial whale killing.
In June, Svavarsdóttir suspended whaling until 31 August after a government-commissioned report concluded that the hunt does not comply with Iceland’s animal welfare legislation.
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Nuke the whales
Give the whales nukes
Gotta nuke something.
Can we also have fricken sharks with fricken laser beams attached to their fricken heads?
I propose we give James Cameron total authority over the US 6th Fleet with carte blanche to resolve this.
It isn't really profitable. The meat isn't really in demand and they harvest far fewer than the limit that's set by the government. This interview with a wailer from freakenomics was interesting and touched on a lot of these issues.
as a sort of expert on commercial fishing/fisheries management and economics, absolutely not especially to the degree where it is worth the backlash this is getting. This strikes me as an incredibly dumb decision from a pr standpoint at the very least, and it's the sort of thing that could lead to ramifications for the actually important parts of the Icelandic seafood industry if any countries decide to restrict seafood imports over the whaling (which has happened before in other circumstances)
I'm currently reading Moby Dick and that book goes over the entire process of harvesting a whale. Even then they started it wasn't necessarily profitable but the versatility of the whale s resources were went they are harvested. I also heard the meat sucks.
no it was very profitable parts of the whale were worth their weight in gold and the oil was worth a lot as well
I could be wrong, but I thought the only reason Japanese whaling wasn't profitable is that it's for "research" so it can't be for profit, and also all the physical harassment from "eco terrorist" groups.
Saw a doc about this that said they could only eat a couple of grams/week because of mercury. What a tragedy.
It would be cool to give whales guns and just see what happens.
Like the ocean version of when you give a monkey a gun.
Nice one Iceland
Did we learn nothing from Star Trek 4?
I heard that India is allowing people to wack moneys over the head real good now. It used to be that you couldn't hit them little fellers. Not the cows though. You can't even eat their brain through a small straw like you are told to do to monkeys in some areas of Asia. Regardless, vegans like me can't get into the action. We just massacred a bag of pistachios and that's about as far as we go.
Know why they're called right whales? It's because they're the right ones to hunt.
