MadamePapillon
Fear my Niftyness
- 1 Jul 2007
- 506
- 31
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There are 900 000 of them, which is a large number by anyones standards. Also, I would like to know who exactly thinks they are high risk?
That is how many the Japanese say there are...
Recent estimates show there could already be as few as 250,000 Minkes from 3 different sub-species in the Southern Ocean, despite Japanese claims of close to 1 million.
However, I can propose an alternative hypothesis. Maybe, they are actually doing scientific whaling. I know crazy, isn't it? Just bear with me. Then, say there was this clause, in the whaling memoriam that said they can do scientific whaling, and said the byproducts shouldn't go to waste. So Japan does this scientific whaling, and as they still make a loss, it obviously can't be commercial. It accounts for everything. Coincidence? Maybe, but unlikely.
I'll give you, there might -- strong might -- be some research going on. But in what world does research require the killing of 900+ of the animal in question? There are plenty of non-lethal methods that might be used.
Also....where is the research and what is it being used for?
Japanese claim to be undertaking research by killing whales. However, most of the data collected by the Japanese ツ'Scientific whaling' programme is not required for management or conservation of whale stocks and is never published in reputable scientific journals.
Most Japanese ツ'research' objectives are directed towards finding data to support a return to commercial whaling, and/or studies on how to make whaling more efficient.
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