Japan Attempted to Crossbreed Whales and Cows

SexyGreyFox · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:08

Australia will call for the loophole allowing for whaling for scientific research to be closed at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission after a review of published scientific research suggested no useful science is being produced.

In 18 years Japan's scientific whaling program has produced only 43 papers. Half sought to establish whale mortality rates without a definitive result while the rest were a variety of oddities including attempting to cross-breed whales with cows.

"I challenge anyone to look at this sort of research and say it's necessary, to say it requires killing over 7000 whales... [It] is not science, it's not necessary - it's commercial whaling," said Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23339764-2,00.html

I think a competition for the best picture of a cow/whale type creature is on here.
Start doodling.

Sankari · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:13

LOL, this "research" is so transparent.

Whales/cows, what a joke. :rolleyes:

NO SWEARING - Dangerous

JIM_BOB7813 · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:15

It's so obvious that they are just after the whale meat, dunno why they haven't been stopped yet.

Tefal · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:18

the fact that they can catch this many and it hasn't killed all the whales, sort of proves that low level/sustainable whaling is capable of working.

Don't the Norwegians/somewhere near there hunt even more whales and don't even claim it to be for research but no one complains about them :confused:

SexyGreyFox · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:23

Cyanide · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:24

So they're justifying killing 7000 whales a year to research whale mortality rates? Can no-one else see the irony in that?

Tefal · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:25

Cyanide said:
So they're justifying killing 7000 whales a year to research whale mortality rates? Can no-one else see the irony in that?

How do you justify killing 9 billion chickens a year in the USA alone?

Cyanide · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:29

Tefal said:
How do you justify killing 9 billion chickens a year in the USA alone?

But that's not to research how they're dieing though is it? People know that chickens are being killed to be eaten. Chickens aren't endangered, as far as I know. It's the fact that they're covering up commercial whaling by effectively saying "we're killing them to see how they die" that gets me.

Tefal · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:34

Cyanide said:
But that's not to research how they're dieing though is it? People know that chickens are being killed to be eaten. Chickens aren't endangered, as far as I know. It's the fact that they're covering up commercial whaling by effectively saying "we're killing them to see how they die" that gets me.

actually it says mortality rate, not how they die.

and whales aren't really endangered for this level of hunting, and why aren't you out raged that the Norwegians have been commercially fishing whales since 1993 with about 600-700 whales per year, much worse than the Japanese.

Cyanide · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:37

Tefal said:
actually it says mortality rate, not how they die.

and whales aren't really endangered for this level of hunting, and why aren't you out raged that the Norwegians have been commercially fishing whales since 1993 with about 600-700 whales per year, much worse than the Japanese.

I never said I was outraged, I simply said they've got some mad reasons for avoiding the hunting ban.

Tefal · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:41

Cyanide said:
I never said I was outraged, I simply said they've got some mad reasons for avoiding the hunting ban.

mad reasons?

The reason is they want meat, but don't fancy opposing the IWC, as it would be rather bad politically so they do what Iceland does, and hunt small numbers under the guise of reaserch, which of course means they can never really catch huge numbers so if this loop hole is closed they will just object the IWC ruling which means they can catch as many as they like, then do that, as if it comes to that point it would be worse for them to ban it than let it happen and take the political flack.

Yas786 · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:44

Tefal said:
How do you justify killing 9 billion chickens a year in the USA alone?

Are you being serious??...one justification and possibly a major one is that chickens are a food source for humans...whereas whales really arent tbh.

Vanilla · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:46

I want to see them make robot whales

Tefal · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:48

Spawn said:
Are you being serious??...one justification and possibly a major one is that chickens are a food source for humans...whereas whales really arent tbh.

so if whales aren't a food source for humans, why exactly is it legal for aborigines to hunt them for food, or why they have been hunted for millennia for food by various peoples, and civilizations, they do actually eat the whales, they just measure the ear wax to judge the whales age for "research" purposes.

Who exactly gets to choose, what is an acceptable food source for humans?

fini · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:51

Tefal said:
How do you justify killing 9 billion chickens a year in the USA alone?

KFC

DannyDan · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:54

dmpoole said:

This looks like a 'shop to me

badbob · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:56

Spawn said:
Are you being serious??...one justification and possibly a major one is that chickens are a food source for humans...whereas whales really arent tbh.

What a silly post. Of course whales are a food source for humans. As is pretty much everything else, if you wanted. Not that I agree with hunting endangered animals.

Nitefly · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:58

Tefal said:
Who exactly gets to choose, what is an acceptable food source for humans?

We do by the fact that some species of whale may be endangered, and since they can not be farmed, continuing to hunt them may cause them to go extinct. And don't try the 'sustainable farming' tactic because sustainable farming of a wild population does not work.

Sankari · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:59

Tefal said:
so if whales aren't a food source for humans, why exactly is it legal for aborigines to hunt them for food

Because their impact on the whale population is negligible. Half a dozen guys in canoes with spears vs. a giant whale trawler with a built-in factory. Which do you think is likely to kill and process more whales within the space of a day?

or why they have been hunted for millennia for food by various peoples, and civilizations

And now certain species are threatened, so they must be protected. I don't care if some cultures have been eating whales for 13 billion years; that's no justification for driving a species to extinction.

they do actually eat the whales, they just measure the ear wax to judge the whales age for "research" purposes.

LOL, research my arse. We've just seen the value of that "research". It's complete .

NO SWEARING

Who exactly gets to choose, what is an acceptable food source for humans?

Humans, of course. But the decision is always modified by societal norms and environmental impact, to which we are all held accountable.

Try hunting giant pandas for food and see how far you get with that. Or Welsh people. Let's all hunt Welsh people for food! Yeah, let's do that.

How about it?

[noodle] · 8 Mar 2008 at 18:59

I severely doubt that this research is a good use of resources...