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Call for Boycott Japanese whale Fishing
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| Chryz707 |
This has got to stop... Talk about really sad.... Please pass this along thru the blogasphere.....
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Australia's government on Thursday released graphic pictures of Japanese hunters harpooning whales and dragging the bleeding carcasses onto a ship near Antarctica, calling it evidence of "indiscriminate" slaughter.
Australia and Japan disagree over whether this shows a dead whale and its calf.
1 of 2 Japan denied one of the photographs showed a mother and its calf being killed, and accused Australian officials and media of spreading propaganda that could damage ties between the two nations.
The images were the latest salvo in the new Australian government's stepped-up campaign against Japan's annual whale hunt, which resumed recently after being interrupted by environmental activists who chased the fleet through icy waters at the far south of the world.
The pictures were taken from the Oceanic Viking, an Australian customs service ship sent to monitor the hunt and collect evidence for a legal challenge the government wants to bring against Japan's claim that it kills whales only for scientific purposes.
"It is explicitly clear from these images that this is the indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way," Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett told reporters.
"To claim that this is in any way scientific is to continue the charade that has surrounded this issue from day one," he said.
The images include video footage of a harpoon being fired into a swimming whale, which writhes as it is hauled toward the ship. The whale eventually stops moving and lies still in bloodstained waters, the harpoon clearly visible piercing its body.
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One picture shows two whales -- one far smaller than the other -- being dragged by ropes or cables up a ramp in the stern of a ship as blood dribbles down.
Hideki Moronuki, chief of the Japanese Fishing Agency's whaling section, denied the photograph depicted a baby whale.
"The fleet is engaged in random sampling, which means they are taking both large and small whales. This is not a parent and calf," Moronuki said in Tokyo.
He also accused Australian officials of getting dangerously close to Japan's whaling ships to take the pictures.
The Institute of Cetacean Research, the Japanese government-affiliated organization that oversees the hunt, posted a statement on its Web site headlined: "Australian Customs Photos Mislead the Public."
"The Government of Australia photographs and the media reports have created a dangerous emotional propaganda that could cause serious damage to the relationship between our two countries," institute director Minoru Morimoto said in the statement.
Japan has staunchly defended its annual killing of more than 1,000 whales, conducted under a clause in International Whaling Commission rules that allows whales to be hunted for scientific purposes.
Critics call the Japanese program a disguise for commercial whaling, which has been banned by the commission since 1986.
Japan had planned to kill up to 50 endangered humpback whales this season, but backed away after strong international condemnation. It has a quota to kill 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.
The whalers resumed their hunt in recent days after earlier being interrupted by ships sent by the Greenpeace environmentalist group and the militant activist group Sea Shepherd.
Two Sea Shepherd activists using a small boat got on board one of the harpoon ships in January and spent several days in detention before they were picked up by Australian customs officers. Greenpeace says it chased the fleet's whale processing ship out of the hunting grounds.
Both the Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace vessels later left Antarctic waters after running low on fuel and supplies.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's left-of-center Labor Party government replaced a conservative administration in November elections and has sought to burnish its environmental credentials on a number of fronts, such as quickly signing the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
In late December, the government announced it was sending a ship and plane to collect evidence for a case against Japan's whaling program before the International Court of Justice, the International Whaling Commission or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus said the images released Thursday could be proof the Japanese program is a sham.
"We have got evidence of whaling being carried out in circumstances that we believe it should not be done," he told reporters.
Animal welfare groups expressed horror at the images.
"Japan's whaling is not just cruel, it's criminal," said Darren Kindleysides of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "The evidence is clear. It is time for Australia to take legal action to end this illegal, unnecessary and inhumane activity once and for all." |
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| narcism |
hi chris
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| MiSSyM |
It is very sad & tragic!
Mofo's want to wipe out a species that has been around for millions of years just to make TOM FKN YUM SOUP !
:whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| Yummy yummy yummy I got moby-dick in my tummy... |
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| EgosXII |
Minke whales aren't endangered.
the japs should be able to do what they want... not in aus' waters perhaps, but who are we to tell them what to do? we don't control a country with history that dominates our few hundred years. |
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| narcism |
| quote: | Originally posted by EgosXII
Minke whales aren't endangered.
the japs should be able to do what they want... not in aus' waters perhaps, but who are we to tell them what to do? we don't control a country with history that dominates our few hundred years. |
so if a dog isnt endangered does that mean we can go out and kill as many as we want for "scientific reasons" |
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| EgosXII |
| quote: | Originally posted by narcism
so if a dog isnt endangered does that mean we can go out and kill as many as we want for "scientific reasons" |
a whale isn't a dog (you're using emotional leverage, like the news is showing the pic of the mother and baby): we kill a LOT of animals in australia... i'm just tryin to offer the other side of the argument.
and RSPCA kills probably thousands of dogs and cats annually... |
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| narcism |
| no i was using a comparison just because its not endangered doesnt make it right, i see your trying to justify it from a japanese point of view. However, the fact they have been doing this for years and everyone turns a blind eye is appalling. I'm happy greenpeace is stalking them on the "steve irwin" it just highlights to the world what is really going on. |
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| Dj_Es-Dva |
| quote: | Originally posted by MiSSyM
It is very sad & tragic!
Mofo's want to wipe out a species that has been around for millions of years just to make TOM FKN YUM SOUP !
:whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: |
I dont think theyre out to just wipe out a species, there just unphased what happens to them. Also i didn't think they're eating most of it? I heard most Japanese adults and youngin dont like the taste of it and thats it mainly being used for health stuff?
Not that it matters really lol.
Wheres that Shepherd... |
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| EgosXII |
| quote: | Originally posted by narcism
no i was using a comparison just because its not endangered doesnt make it right, i see your trying to justify it from a japanese point of view. However, the fact they have been doing this for years and everyone turns a blind eye is appalling. I'm happy greenpeace is stalking them on the "steve irwin" it just highlights to the world what is really going on. |
you didn't really answer my points tho ;)
-it's a cultural thing for them, eating/using whale: how can you judge that?
-they're not killing endangered animals, so we don't have some international moral right to stop them (cause we wouldn't be saving the species, since they're not in danger just to clarify)
-and we kill so many animals (incl as i said, pets for utterly pointless reasons (or cull animals because of over-population))- the point is, that people just get all uppity cause whales are meant to be so smart or whatever... that's bull since intelligence is entirely relative: either kill em all, or kill none of em. (unless they're endangered :p ) |
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| Teflon_Teapot |
unless you are vegetarian stfu and stop bitching, the meat industy in this country does horrific things and slaughters baby animals all the time. stop talking bull just because you think we 'share a unique bond with them' it does not mean they should be placed above any other animal. i hear people say that whales communicate with each other blah blah blah, my response to that is sheep bleat to communicate and chickens cluck. whats the difference?
respected marine biologists have said that minke whales are considered the rabbits of the sea and that this species of whale can be harvested sustainably without any possibility of endangering it.
stop preaching about another countries practices when our own backyard is just as f*#ked. aboriginals hunt endangered dugongs in an inhumane manner that could also lead to their extinction but where is the public outcry over that? |
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| narcism |
| quote: | Originally posted by Teflon_Teapot
respected marine biologists have said that minke whales are considered the rabbits of the sea and that this species of whale can be harvested sustainably without any possibility of endangering it.
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source? |
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