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  1. #1
    Queen of the Pity Party
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    Japan Earmarks $29 Million of Tsunami Recovery Fund to Revive Whaling Industry

    http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/201...try/?hpt=hp_c2

    They’re baaaaaaaccck. Whale hunting season kicked off in Japan last week as three ships set off with a security vessel on their annual pilgrimage to cull hundreds of minke and fin whales in Antarctic waters. And so begins the annual showdown between the whalers and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the tenacious, publicity-savvy anti-whaling group that chases the Japanese fleet around the frigid waters of the sixth continent each winter. The yearly spectacle features scuba-clad activists zipping around in fast boats, lobbing stink bombs at the whaling ships and generally making life miserable for the crew who keep Japan’s 19th-century dream alive. The annual tussle even has its own reality show.

    Whaling is not an easy practice to defend these days, particularly when recent polls have shown that 95% of Japanese eat whale meat rarely, if at all. The state-backed industry, which Japan considers its sovereign right to pursue as part of a centuries-old tradition, is under attack both by environmental groups at home and abroad. And yet the government did not do its beleaguered case any favors when it confirmed last week that $29 million of the national post-tsunami recovery fund had been allotted to the whaling industry, including to provide extra security for the whaling fleet.

    They had to know that wasn’t going to go down well. Environmental groups in Japan are outraged that the disaster fund is being used to prop up an industry they have been fighting against for years. Though commercial whaling has been banned for decades, Japan is one of a handful of nations that continue their catch with the permission of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for scientific purposes, culling about 1000 whales annually. “Pouring billions of yen into Antarctic whaling during this time of crisis is downright shameful,” Junichi Sato, head of Greenpeace Japan, told the Guardian last week. “Japan cannot afford to waste money on whaling in the Antarctic when its people are suffering at home.”

    Tokyo says the whaling industry needs the support of the fund to get back on its feet after March 11 just like other fishing communities on the devastated northeastern coast of Japan. Port towns like Ayukawa that were built on the back of the multi-million dollar whaling industry were destroyed along with so much else, and, like their neighbors, residents there want to get their businesses back up and running, too. “Many people in the area eat whale meat,” an official from Japan’s Fisheries Agency told CNN. “They are waiting for Japan’s commercial whaling to resume and it is their hope for recovery.”

    But padding the industry with reconstruction money is not the end of Japan’s efforts to protect its scientific endeavors. Last year, the government caved in to the pressure Sea Shepherd exerted on its ships and crew and called off the hunt early, with only about one-fifth of its intended catch. On Dec. 9, the Institute of Cetacean Research, the government body that manages the yearly cull, announced that it filed a lawsuit along with shipowner Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha against Sea Shepherd and its founder, Paul Watson. (See the press release here.) ICR and Kyodo Senpaku are seeking a court order to prevent “SSCS and its founder Paul Watson from engaging in activities at sea that could cause injuries to the crews and damage to the vessels.”

    Watson, whose organization is based in the U.S. state of Washington, responded immediately to the news of the law suit. “We have not caused a single injury nor have we been charged with a crime or even reprimanded by anyone for our actions,” he is quoted as saying on the organization’s web site. “This is simply a case of using the courts to harass us. I don’t believe they have a case and I doubt a U.S. court would take this seriously. Unlike Japan, the courts in the United States don’t automatically do what the government demands that they do.” The organization is currently planning to send 88 crew members on three ships to do its yearly battle under the banner of “Operation Divine Wind.”


    ~

    oh and just for fun:

    http://sustentator.com/blog-en/files...01/whaling.jpg

  2. #2
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  3. #3
    Ninja Ninja
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    Well, glad I didn't waste any Crysta donating to the relief fund.

  4. #4
    D. Ring
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ragnus View Post
    Well, glad I didn't waste any Crysta donating to the relief fund.
    It sounds to me like its a state created fund, while I would imagine the fund SE held donations for was a non-profit charity of some kind? On top of which their whaling is a state owned industry.

  5. #5
    I'll change yer fuckin rate you derivative piece of shit
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    How is it that they get permission from the whaling watchdog group for "scientific purposes" when their own government agency representative acknowledges that the whales are eaten?

  6. #6
    I'll change yer fuckin rate you derivative piece of shit
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  7. #7
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    I was gonna say what the fuck. But its japan, so yeah

  8. #8
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  9. #9
    I'm more gentle than I look.
    Mr. Feathers AKA Mr. Striations
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  10. #10
    Spiders are Awesome
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    Leave 'em be. Getting 200x your yearly mercury allowance in one meal = laser-guided karma.

  11. #11
    Relic Weapons
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kerberoz View Post
    Leave 'em be. Getting 200x your yearly mercury allowance in one meal = laser-guided karma.
    I'm with Kerb on this one. As much as I hate the killing, the whales will probably outlive the whalers.

    Japan's population is greying out at an ever increasing rate. The younger generations are turning against their elders and their traditions. The mercury is just going to end up being icing on the cake.

  12. #12
    Queen of the Pity Party
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    mercury icing... I like the way you think, this could work.

  13. #13
    blax n gunz
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    The hunted whale species aren't on any endangered list. Who cares?



    Besides this bitch, anyway.

  14. #14
    Sea Torques
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    I would kinda hope that the "the tenacious, publicity-savvy anti-whaling group" gets sunk themselves, but that's just me.

  15. #15
    I'm not safe on my island
    Nikkei will still get me.

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    Who cares about fucking whales. What Japan needs to do is to stop being a punk bitch and revalue its currency and or lower import barriers so America can be great again.

  16. #16

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    Meanwhile in Australia.

    Australians have exterminated 23 bird, 4 frog and 27 mammal species in the past 200 years.

    Even now there are 78 listed threatened species in Australia along with 42 subspecies.

    Yeah, no one fucking cares. Literally.

  17. #17
    I'll change yer fuckin rate you derivative piece of shit
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    Quote Originally Posted by Celestialstrife View Post
    I would kinda hope that the "the tenacious, publicity-savvy anti-whaling group" gets sunk themselves, but that's just me.
    If you ever watch Whale Wars (one of the better reality shows in my, um, professional opinion) most of the joy is watching how utterly incompetent the whale-loving hippies are at sailing.

    Watching them try to pick a crew member amongst their unathletic ranks to throw those stink-bombs onto the decks of the Japanese ships is hilarious. When they flip their rubber swiftboats trying to lower them into the ocean, shit is amazing.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pikarya View Post
    Meanwhile in Australia.

    Australians have exterminated 23 bird, 4 frog and 27 mammal species in the past 200 years.

    Even now there are 78 listed threatened species in Australia along with 42 subspecies.

    Yeah, no one fucking cares. Literally.
    Nothing good ever came from australia

  19. #19
    D. Ring
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kerberoz View Post
    Leave 'em be. Getting 200x your yearly mercury allowance in one meal = laser-guided karma.
    why has this never crossed my mind?

  20. #20
    Black Belt
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pikarya View Post
    Meanwhile in Australia.

    Australians have exterminated 23 bird, 4 frog and 27 mammal species in the past 200 years.

    Even now there are 78 listed threatened species in Australia along with 42 subspecies.

    Yeah, no one fucking cares. Literally.
    Not a single spider species? Clearly they're not getting their priorities right

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