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© 2014 AFPNew whaling plan will prove hunt is for scientific purposes: negotiator
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Knox Harrington
They don't respect international rules, so why not just quit? Because they want to keep up the illusion that they are a member of the international community with all of what that brings. In reality, they just want to do as they please and have those pesky outsider shut up and mind their own business.
Funny, I remember another nation that, in a state of hubris, practiced that some years ago all over east Asia...
avigator
Well, calling all volunteers for the next whaling season, but aboard the Sea Shepherd. Capt Watson, you have been recalled back to active duty. Please report asap for processing. Your services are one more time needed to fight a new war against whale terrorism.
bass4funk
How many times do we have to hear about these so called scientific whale research expeditions? How dumb do they think the world is? They can't come up with a better lie??
Disillusioned
If this is so, please explain to me why you need to kill any whales?
They intend to prove something that is not true? That ought to be pretty interesting! The Japanese are researching the viability of commercial whaling to supply a country with meat that nobody wants to eat. That is completely daft!
Knox Harrington
They would. If Japan was a democratic nation.
I, too would love to see that, but unfortunately, nobody of the locals seem to give an ounce of a f. They are too busy going to Disneyland and repressing reality to care...
paulinusa
Their "scientific" logic is they have to kill them to save them.
Nightshade 2014
Anyone got some oceanfront property in a landlocked state to sell me? This whaling issue needs a large infusion of rational thought brought to it. Emotionalism isn't helping anyone...particularly the whales. It's either science or economics. Let's be honest.
CrazyJoe
@paulinusa
Their scientific logic is an insult to science.
nath
Ok guys, somebody please explain me WHY THE HECK there is so much interest coming from the government towards whaling? Is there any tradition where politicians 'must follow a diet' based on whale? I don't get it.
What if China start using same 'tricks' to prove their coral poaching habits is a must for some sort of research?
Please Japan, stop pooping on you international image.
Mizuame
Is conducting such scientific research on whaling a Japanese cultural tradition?
nath
This is why most people have a problem with the whole whaling position of Japan! Everyone knows that Japan was cornered into a so-called scientific whaling research program in-order to continue supplying the Japanese market with whale meet. Absolutely NO-ONE on ANY side of this issue can be under the slightest impression that science OR research have ANYTHING to do with this whaling program. If Japan COULD hunt commercially there would be nearly no research on the whales in any measurable way.
I think those who will be forced to disagree have repeated the guise so often that they actually believe the lie. Just be honest for crying out loud! But please don't continue to make fools of yourselves by trying to use phrases like the hunt is for genuine scientific purposes because you lose ALL credibility. Make your case why you want to continue supplying Japanese with whale meat and acknowledge that you are forced to do so under this IWC imposed criteria. Make the point that nearly every other society uses animals in one way or another for human consumption so stop being hypocrites.
At-least you will be able to look people in the eyes when you defend your position!
Jimizo
This is beyond embarrassing now. Just call it what it is and stop insulting people's intelligence.
WilliB
Good luck with that "proof"! I certainly want to see that.
gogogo
How can they seriously say this with a straight face, are they delusional? even the Japanese people know the "hunt" is for hunting and eating.
See you in court Japan.
Andre Hut
What a hopeless, hopeless argument. Cut the "whale" quota to just about what you were catching anyway for the dinner plates. There is no scientific purpose for killing the whales. We know what they eat. You don't need to kill them to count them. You can track their migration by using radios, and not killing them. Do the Japanese officials think that the rest of the world is stone stupid? We know why whaling continues. Its nothing less than political. If you want whale meat, go look in the freezers where hundreds of tons of it are stored. :P
Sensato
Here, Japan's negotiator insists that the nation is compromising with the rest of the world by offering to cut its quota by two-thirds, even though...
333 whales is actually a considerable increase in comparison with numbers over the previous two years. Sneaky.
fxgai
One can not get past the fact that Japan doesn't need to prove that whaling is sustainable anymore. It's already obvious that it is. The IWC should lift that out-dated whaling moratorium, let Japan catch as many whales as is commercially viable and sustainable, and let this issue be put to rest.
The world's do-gooders have surely got some serious problems to be looking at instead of this cultural disagreement about whales (which like fish come from the sea) being eligible as food or not.
However, I must say it looks likely an impressive scientific research proposal to me. http://iwc.int/private/downloads/7bqy9b9maskkk0gc0scccoo40/NEWREP_A.pdf
jojo_in_japan
This is truley obsured !! If it were truely scientific it would NOT need to be proven. Europeans have been conducting non-leathal research for ages.
MissingCylonModel
I don't get it. Why is there no shame on that man's face? What is wrong with him?
nath
Except that they do. They've listened to the ruling from the ICJ, and they have stopped their old program, and are restructuring it according to the guidelines outlined by the ruling from the ICJ. If they didn't respect the rules, they would just ignore the ruling and continue on with their old program.
What does it matter what they want? What matters is what they do. And what they are doing is listening to the international community by moving to be in line with the ICJ ruling.
Jim Poushinsky
Whales are the most intelligent life form on Mother Earth. Their brains are huge compared to ours. Dinosaurs the size of whales had tiny brains, so what else do whales use such massive brains for except to think? Killing them is murder, and humans eating them is worse than cannibalism! There is much whales could teach us, if and when we develop sufficient intelligence to communicate with them. Hopefully this will happen before we destroy each other, and much of the Earth in the process.
Heda_Madness
Killing whales is murder. And eating them is worse than cannibalism.
Wow. Just wow.
nath
Arguable.
Not.
smithinjapan
You've gotta love how the knee-jerk reaction to anti-whaling is always: "darn it! How many times do we have to tell you IT'S FOR SCIENCE!?! We don't say you can't eat cows, do we?"
Todd Topolski
How about forget these bans. Whales are animals and can be consumed as food, if endangered species,can be baned But like any food resource , manage it properly.
Or if it is banned, ban it all, 100%, no exemptions for science and these ridiculous "traditional hunting claims".
Either let everyone do it or ban it. This game where some international bureaucrats get to ban japan in the antarctic but doesnt ban in the south atlantic because of traditions is just that a game. Its bureaucrats picking winners and losers.
Nessie
You mean like the anti-whalers do? And I'm not just talking about Sea Shepherd. The commercial whaling ban was supposed to be reexamined in light of new population estimates, but it hasn't been, despite rebounds in whale populations and sustainably large populations of minkes. The fact of the matter is that the IWC has been hijacked by conservationists who are against even sustainable whaling. I'm personally against whaling as wasteful and unnecessary, but the international rules were put in place for conservation toward sustainable commercial whaling.
Heda_Madness
As Nessie said, but it's also worth pointing out what the IWC has said about the Minke:
Which begs the obvious question...
HM7769
I remember this Joji Morishita clown once saying whales are the cockroaches of the sea. The only cockroach here is him...and his cronies.
Come to think of it, it's offensive to cockroaches to liken them to him.
Japan's arrogance on this issue never ceases to amaze me. It must stop raping the oceans.
No oceans, no planet. No planet, no future. It's not rocket science.
commanteer
If whales are so smart, why don't they communicate with us then? Like, maybe asking us to stop eating them? We communicate with dogs, and didn't wait around for them to develop enough intelligence to talk to us first. I'll be the first to call for an end to whaling when the whales themselves ask for it.
Yubaru
Must be Japan's new math in play. I always thought that half of zero was zero.
ifd66
How exactly does lower kill numbers "prove" the killings are Scientific? That's one big jump in logic.
HonestDictator
Agreed, Most of the research I've seen in the nature programs I watch was some scientists in a boat shooting some thin sharp tubes into a breaching (and very much alive) whales thick blubber and collecting the skin samples and proceeding to gather information from there as well as some underwater filmography and the whales migration pattern.
Japan can't even do the same?
cleo
Maybe Morishita is trying to baffle us with 'science'. Give yourself a quota that is roughly double the average of what you actually took in the last two years, claim it's a reduction and proof that you're abiding by the ICJ's ruling (which several pro-whalers here on JT gleefully pointed out asserted that catches were too small to achieve the stated 'scientific' research goals), then fire up the harpoons and ready the soy sauce while people are trying to extricate themselves from the fiendishly cloying non-logic.
The very fact that Japan is striving to find a way to make the hunt 'scientific' is in itself proof that the 'scientific research' is a means, not an end. No such hunt by definition can be 'for the purpose of scientific research'. Everyone knows it's for the purpose of killing whales, and the 'research' is nothing but a thin and tattered cover that hides nothing. Even the court knows the emperor has no clothes.
boweevil
In the same news conference Morshita said ant-whaling stances represented 'a kind of eco-imperialism' in that the cultural valkues of the international community at large were being forced on Japan. He also said this is part of a larger problem without specificly going into details. However, his initial charge of 'eco-imperialism' is flawed in that it only recognizes Japan's position. If Japan were allowed to have full control of the situation then 'eco-imperialism' would simply be superceded by 'Japanese eco-imperialism'. As to the 'part of the larger problem' he alludes to the logic is similarly flawed if he is referring to perceptions of history that don't view Japan as liberator of Asia, when in fact, all that happened was 'yellow imperialism' replaced 'white imperialism'. This is the big hole in the whale munching history revising right winged 'We won't get pushed around anymore logic'. Its funny how its only imperialism if someone else is telling you what to do...but if you're telling them (i.e. the bulk of the international parties involved) what to do then you are asserting your cultural sovereignty.
nath
The ICJ didn't say anything about zero. Would that be your new English at play?
Christopher Glen
But Japanese people believe it's their tradition and "culture". Please, pull the other one Mr Morishita. I saw you dozing off in parts of the Cove film. Time to retire
nath
By the definition of tradition and culture, it is both tradition and culture:
Tradition: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tradition?s=t&path=/
Culture: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture?s=t&path=/
nath
While that's true, the culture in question is simply eating an animal. We as humans have decided it is ok to eat animals. Thousands of cows die every year for that. The only reason whales should be exempt is if they are endangered, and recent studies seem to indicate they are not.
boweevil
@Strangerland
It is true that it is eating an animal...but the fact that it is being done under the guise of research makes it a lie. The fact that hunting is being carried out at times in international waters that are much closer to countries that disagree with the practice makes it offensive. The fact that there are stockpiles of the stuff makes it greedy. The fact that it costs the tax payers money makes it expensive. The fact that it contains high levels of mercury makes it dangerous. The fact that any oppositon to it is seen as an affront to Japanese dignity makes it childish. The fact that the environmental impact on the marine ecosystems is as yet unknown makes it a concern...
Having said all that, it is eating an animal...but it could be argued that humans are animals too...And while some cultures (have or have had) a penchant for eating humanst-there is absolutely no need for the world to respect that tradition. If one is part of a community then one must respect the wishes of the majority-or go their own way-but they should not be expected to included in that community having done so.
nath
They are quite open about what they do with it. And they are trying to stay within the rules as they have been outlined. So I don't see where the lie is.
As you say, it's arguable, But we've agreed as a species that it is unacceptable to eat humans. We haven't agreed the same about whales though.
Brian Wheway
how much research can be done on 200 odd mink whales? Iam sure you can get a lot of data from 1 dead whale, so why 200 odd whales? do these scientists know what they are doing?? has there ever been a program on TV showing the wasteful slaughter of whales, and how they are hunted? Iam shure if they did the amount of whales will drop drematicly over night.
fxgai
Strangerland,
While that is true, for la-la-landers whales have transcended being some other edible animal to being a symbol of environmental protection. Despite reality - however many whales there might be and however tasty they might be - "whales" are not merely an animal, but a sacred piece of symbolism, which must be defended with priority over everything else.
Behold the comments here from folks who obviously haven't read the revised research plan (they know who they are). These folks see no need to bother to read it because they have group-think self-enforcing their dogma going on. As 10 other people are saying the same thing, none of them actually need bother reading it and validating anything they are saying. This then breeds a creed based on fiction.
If we wonder about how religious myths and stuff like that comes about, this whol scam surrounding a bunch of whales is likely very instructive.
Brian Wheway
If you really care, you'd read the research proposal, right? So do you care, or is your mind made up and self-inforced by other people asking the same rhetorical questions?
boweevil
@Strangerland
'They are quite open about what they do with it'.
In so far as exploiting a loophole. 'Its for research...but we are selling it and eating it too-and at the end of the day that is our primary motivation for research to begin with' comes across as being untruthful.
'But we've agreed as a species that is unacceptable to eat humans',
Err...No we haven't. But as a majority, humans as species have agreed to stop eating humans. The same can be said of whales. As I said Japan should be free to pursue its gastronomic pleasures, but it should not be surprised or feel slighted if is viewed with suspicion and distrust within parts of the international community that don't share the same appetites.
fxgai
No. I think the majority of humans are more mature than that.
Why they should expect to have to put up with such gastronomic intolerance is beyond me.
boweevil
@fxgai
'is beyond me' being the operative words. When you place your own preferences over the wishes of the majority of the populations of other industrialized countries in the region then you can't expect them to welcome you into international waters on thier maritme borders. Well you can, but then you start looking a bit like China, 'Gastronomic intolerance' is a double edged harpoon.
nath
How is it exploiting a loophole? They were given clear instructions by the ICJ, that they are implementing. There is no loophole here, they were told directly what wasn't appropriate, and they are stopping doing the things that were not appropriate.
boweevil
`How is it exploiting a loophole?'
As the long as the primary motivation for hunting whales is commercial rather than scientific then that is exactly what they are doing and have been doing. You can't honestly tell me that research is the primary motivating factor.
I'm looking forward to seeing how quick they will be to implement the non-lethal research they mentioned above. That in itself will be a key indicator as to how serious they are about research as opposed to harvesting meat.
GW
Ahh another embarrassing day to be in Japan, where do they dig up these fools!
Japan making fool of itself once again, if only they would notice what they do to themselves!
nath
Their primary motivation is not part of the rules. Their actions are. As long as their actions fall within the boundaries of the rules, they are not doing anything wrong. That is unless you can find part of the rules that refers to primary motivation - in which case I'll agree with you that they are in the wrong.
Ron Barnes
The Revenge of a whale ,The scientific hunting of the Japanese Whalers them selves. They would be very tasty to sharks so team up with some .Then share the lovely morsels and titbits. It would be very scientific if you just call it . Culling the whalers .
boweevil
They are lying if they say research is the prime motivation for feeding their already overstocked freezers. They are not doing anything wrong if you have no problem with them lying-regardless of what the rules are. The rules form the loophole that frames the lie. A loophole is when rules are exploited to do something that you either should not be doing, or should not be admitting openly i.e. We are whaling for commercial purposes. Its not a difficult concept to understand.
CH3CHO
Brian WhewayNov. 27, 2014 - 04:11PM JST
How can we know the age distribution, male to female ratio, and reproductivity of whale stock from just 1 dead whale? I think 200 is a bit too small sample size. Unless we know those numbers and constantly up date them, we cannot know if the whales are endagered or not, can we?
boweevil
'I think 200 is a bit too small a sample size. Unless we know those numbers and constantly update them, we cannot know if the whales are endangered or not, can we?'
Interesting idea....That's like saying I wont know if my hand is burning until I stick into the fire...
CH3CHO
boweevilNov. 27, 2014 - 08:27PM JST
It seems you are really new to this issue.
JARPA is scientific research whaling.
If you have any other way of knowing age distribution, male to female ratio, reproductivity, and, oh, mercury contamination level of whale stock, go ahead and write it here.
Christopher Glen
I wonder if you asked the average Japanese on the streets of Tojyo whether what they are doing is research or tradition - what kind of answer you'll get. Likely the latter
boweevil
CH3CHO
'JARPA is scientific research whaling'.
And the pope is protestant too? I can't argue with logic that is predicated on a lie. That is the whole problem with Japanese whaling research... And the idea that you have to take huge samples of a species to determine whether it is endangered is absurd. JARPA is not a reputable organization in my opinion . It is a cover operations for an industry that most industrialized nations stopped participating in 200 years ago. To be honest, I'm not that passionate about whales. But I do find the dishonesty surrounding this iissue in Japan both hypocritical and revolting.
And what is this research (quote-unquote) in aid of? To demonstrate how many whales can be sold commercially. It really is a shameful business. I would be more respectful if Japan said : 'We want to hunt commercially' rather than pretend to research whales.
Thunderbird2
So by reducing the number of whales killed they prove it's a scientific hunt? Er..... how?
Yubaru
Reading comprehension comes into play.....
Notice the words "banning the hunt".....Ban means ZERO in most peoples vernacular, ban means to do otherwise, even ONE is against the ruling. Ban does not mean kill one or two or three hundred either.
avigator
Just make artificial whale meat from soy beans just like those fake hot dogs they sell at the matsuri.
Cliffy
Yes, research of taste buds.
souka
i wonder if morishita have peer-reviewed papers being published on his scientific experiments or findings as presented in this article.
WilliB
Jim pouchinski:
Destroy each other? Wow! I knew that humans are killing whales, but I did not know about the reverse. Whales are hunting us too? Tell us more!
bruinfan
I assume major tax money is being used to fund this waste?
mukashiyokatta
Show us the 'findings' of this 'research'.
wtfjapan
This is beyond embarrassing now. Just call it what it is and stop insulting people's intelligence. yes exactly wgat ive been thinking, Japan should just come out and say what everybody know, We want to hunt whales for a profit, we want to hunt them in as many numbers as we can possible kill, we want to feed it to our children so they grow up eating it and buying it, if that fails we want to sell it as pet food. and we want the international community to understand our culture if not to bad for you. oh but please dont hate us as we want foreigners to keep buy our made in Japan items. have a nice day
Brenda Katana
no one believes them any more... why bother??
CH3CHO
boweevilNov. 27, 2014 - 09:19PM JST
Talking of honesty, we have to go back to square one to see the promise made when commercial whaling went into moratorium. http://www.iwcoffice.org/convention
It is 2014 and we still do not see the "comprehensive assessment" of whale stock, just because whale loving groups are deliberately delaying the process saying the sample is too small, knowing any concluding assessment would result in establishment of quota, however small, for commercial whaling and their only hope is to deliberately delay the process forever. That is what I call dishonest.
soukaNov. 27, 2014 - 11:15PM JST
Here you are. http://www.iwcoffice.org/jarpaii-review-workshop-feb-2014
Jim Poushinsky
WilliB - I was referring to humans destroying each other and much of the Earth in the process. Unfortunately my following post, which would have helped clarify this, was removed by the censor without explanation. Suffice to say that whales mean us no harm, and instead are examples of the intelligent peaceful co-existent higher life forms that they would like to help us become. If you observe whales and are respectful of them, you will find this out for yourself.
" There is much whales could teach us, if and when we develop sufficient intelligence to communicate with them. Hopefully this will happen before we destroy each other, and much of the Earth in the process. "
Destroy each other? Wow! I knew that humans are killing whales, but I did not know about the reverse. Whales are hunting us too? Tell us more!
Christopher Glen
Precisely.
CH3CHO
Christopher GlenNov. 28, 2014 - 12:40PM JST
I do not think that idea contradicts animal conservation at all.
To get the maximum number, the harvesting must be sustainable and the stock must be prosperous and proliferating. The idea is called "maximum sustainable yield" and widely accepted by scientists and fishing industry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_sustainable_yield
Christopher Glen
Which leads me back to my earlier point. Japanese people believe it's "tradition", while their government tells the world through Mr Morishita that it's scientific research. And BTW it's 2014. Whaling is something best left in the 20th century
sassarma
It is heartening to note that there is a perceptional change on whales We should put an end to killing of whales and go down deep into ocean to kill and eat
wtfjapan
CH3CHO the only way Japan will get commercial whaling restarted is quit the IWC and go it alone. but doubt the have the nads to do that, as the damage to there image and the negatives it will have on trade will far outweight any positives that whaling has for Japan. but then again this is Japn were talking about pride and culture will always trump common sense.
Christopher Glen
I agree with all the above except culture. If they resumed coastal whaling - which they can't or won't, then they could call it culture. As has been shown many times - their "culture" doesn't extend to Antarctica
Nessie
You act like these are contradictory positions. No-one claims that research fishing for cod in Maritime Canada contradicts commercial fishing as the primary motivating factor. Yes, the ultimate aim of the research is commercial. No-one disputes that, for cod or for whales.
This is explicit in the IWC charter:
"The preamble to the Convention states that its intention is to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry."What has happened is that the anti-whalers have contravened the IWC charter by refusing to allow sustainable whaling of large minke populations.
Christopher Glen
So - it's either for maintaining "tradition", which many Japanese seem to believe it is - support even though few eat whale meat. (However that tradition would involve coastal whaling) Whereas Japan has only been involved with Antarctica since the opening of the 20th century. So that part isn't tradition. Ergo, the rest of the world has been told it's scientific research. So, scientific research to resume commercial whaling for something that has little popularity in Japan. If you follow the argument to a logical conclusion - this is it
bamboo pink
Japanese gov doesn't claim that the scientific research is tradition. We call commercial whaling a tradition. To begin with, whale meat became unpopular after 1986 when IWC and US put a ban on Japaneses commercial whaling and whale price in market went extremely high. They do scientific whaling to gain evidences for sustanable commercial whaling.
Christopher Glen
No, but Japanese people believe it's their culture and tradition thus the Japanese government is lying to its people. And do you think commercial whaling would ever become commercially viable? I very much doubt it
arrestpaul
This is not a direct quote but the interpretation of the writer. The ICJ did not ban the whale hunt.
“Hopefully this research plan would trigger or send some message (to international opponents) because we have accepted the ICJ judgement in our research plan,” Morishita told journalists.
This is a quote from Morishita where he's talking about accepting the ICJ judgment. Japan has submitted a new plan to the IWC.
Christopher Glen
Which will likely get rebuffed, again and again and again. Japan is swimming against the tide of world opinion on this one, with no possibility of victory
Ron Barnes
Lets see will they send a few destroyers to protect the so called research ships from being interfered with in Australia's protection Zone. How much research is required to simply Kill a whale If they don't know by now they Should stop eating it for research.
Christopher Glen
In an ideal world this would happen. It's likely Abbott will do nothing (due to his secret wheeling-and-dealing with Abe recently) However in the unlikely event Japan resumed commercial whaling the likelihood of direct intervention by the Australian government would become higher.
CH3CHO
Ron BarnesDec. 02, 2014 - 08:07PM JST
That "zone" is based on the assumption that Antarctic Continent belongs to Australia.
The distance between the south most point of Australian Continent and the north most point of Antarctic Ocean is about as wide as the distance between the Canadian border and the Mexican border of the United States.
Kazuaki Shimazaki
@Knox Harrington
I don't know how you define "respect", but one definition would be showing due regard to something, and that's what they are doing.
If anything, the anti-whalers' attitude is showing much less respect, both to those who feel different, and also the very intent of the IWC, which is to provide for sustainable whaling, not to extend a "moratorium" indefinitely.
The burden of scientific research, lethal or non-lethal, should be on those who want to ban whaling so as to prove necessity, not the inverse.