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
Good job their industry doesn't kill 217 per year guaranteeing its pathway to extinction then!
Come on, it was fucking obvious the prior user was doing hyperbole why did you feel the need to do a smarmy correction? Extremely reddit behaviour.
Yes, correcting hyperbole with relevant information is bad, actually.
Ah. So just a couple of whale hunting seasons away from extinction.
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:
Im Icelandic and I can confirm this. This massive asshole (Kristjan Loftson) has plenty of money and one hobby, killing whales. He as lost aprox. 20m€ on whaling in the years he has been hunting them.
...kill him?
I mean, or watch hundreds, thousands of whales die.
Just one dude, man. I dunno, not Icelandic so it isn't really an opportunity I'd have but, um. If all else fails, right?
He will probably kill 10-20 finback whales so we are not talking about very large numbers. Also it would not be good for Icelandic politics if someone would kill him, he could become somekind if whale killer martyr and Iceland would continue to kill whales after his death.
he could become somekind if whale killer martyr
Well that's just as easily solved by more killing. There can't be more than like 20 people in the country that have a massive boner for murdering whales.
Would it be more whales? Less?
There's a minimum whale population before genetic defects start having impact between mates..
I'm not advocating direct violence, but mixing sand into the hunting boat's engine oil and other more peaceful methods should be considered if the government won't listen to reason by its people.
Amazing that such sweeping devastation can be tracked back to one piece of shit.
I'm not Icelandic nor am I a lawyer, but i bet he would stop if his car were harpooned enough times.
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.
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...
Genociding Native Americans and slavery are part of American culture too, but we mostly stopped that.
Would you accept "ItS tHEiR cUlTuRe" if someone decides whaler hunting is part of their history?
legalize hunting icelandic politicians instead
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.
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"
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.
The original article contains 873 words, the summary contains 189 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
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.
I propose we give James Cameron total authority over the US 6th Fleet with carte blanche to resolve this.
Do we have any experts in the fishing industry on lemmy? Is whaling really that profitable? Because it's weird to go back on something like whaling if it isn't profitable. Like I know the Japanese are subsidizing it heavily as a point of national pride, but that can hardly be the issue here.
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