As Whale Species Rebound, Delegates Reevaluate Commercial Hunting Ban

The Washington Post:

A quarter-century after the first anti-hunting regulations were approved, several whale populations have stabilized and a few seem to be rebounding.

Now, in light of that comeback, delegates from around the world will decide in the coming weeks if they should condone commercial hunts once more.

Read the whole story: The Washington Post

Comments

[Senf]

03:24 PM on 03/31/2010

The Japanese population has rebounded nicely from the war, I guess by their logic, they are ready for another round.

[Bartel5]

12:56 AM on 03/31/2010

Whales are rebounding ? Why, that is impossible! Global warming, acid oceans, CO2 levels - nothing good can possibly be happening! Stop publishing this nonsense and get back to the sky is falling!

[mamacat]

05:26 AM on 03/30/2010

If we ran into creatures as intelligent as whales on another planet, we would be claiming that we had discovered an intelligent life form. Since whales share this planet with us, we consider them something to eat.

The only intelligent creatures we don't regularly eat are other humans, and the way we are overpopulating the planet, that taboo may also end.

[DrJohnnySkeptic]

03:48 AM on 03/30/2010

If what they propose were to be done to humans - them, more specifically - they would call it terrorism.

These monsters can't see the forest for the trees.

[TigersEye]

09:40 PM on 03/29/2010

Cetaceans should NOT be considered food by anyone. We don't consider other intelligent animals such as apes food, why are whales hunted? This abhorrent practice needs to be outlawed around the world.

[Caru]

09:13 AM on 03/30/2010

Actually, people do eat apes.

[TigersEye]

07:54 PM on 03/31/2010

That doesn't make it RIGHT.

[PaiaGirl]

08:47 PM on 03/29/2010

As someone who encounters whales on a weekly basis (we paddle outrigger canoe in the Humpback Whale Sanctuary near Maui) it saddens me that anyone would see these mammals as food. They are far more intelligent than cows or other food animals we eat.

When they are near canoes, you can tell they understand how fragile we are and they are careful - modify their behavior so as not to hurt us. I've had friends that inadvertently paddled on top of a whale and the whale turned it's head, looked at them and then carefully sank a couple of feet to free the canoe. (mind you a whale dwarfs a 40 foot outrigger canoe)

[mamacat]

05:31 AM on 03/30/2010

We were put-putting along in the Channel, going to Catalina, when we saw a grey whale. It changed its north to south course and traveled westward with us for awhile. Its tale, which all by itself dwarfed our boat, was going up and down a few feet underneath us. It could have crushed us into smithereens if it wanted to, but instead it just traveled with us for awhile.
I choose not to consider such an intelligent creature a food source.

[PWM]

05:56 PM on 03/29/2010

Whales are some of the most intelligent beings on earth, they have language and a complex social order. Yet people want to kill them for food. Disgusting.

[TigersEye]

07:54 PM on 03/31/2010

I agree.

[Durango]

04:57 PM on 03/29/2010

So as a species we are unable to share our planet with other species unless we commercialize them? ie kill them.

It would be nice to believe we have evolved as a species. But sometimes that just doesn't seem to be the case.

BTW Iceland: Would you like to be bailed out from your economic implosion? Because we don't really need to do that. We could let you rot. Your economy is not actually that big a deal to anyone in the rest of the world.

Norway: I always thought better of you.

Japan: What can one say? Except the people pursuing this completely unnecessary hunt are despicable human beings.

[JTH2711]

04:46 PM on 03/29/2010

Lets be honest Iceland, Norway, and Japan were never big on protection for whales in the first place. This current move should not surprise anyone. I just hope we continue to ban whaling and are aggressive in fighting it

[PaiaGirl]

08:48 PM on 03/29/2010

Japan and its factory fishing trawlers is the scourge of the ocean.

[RockyMissouri]

03:54 PM on 03/29/2010

Some of us should not breed..!

[doubtingdavid]

04:49 PM on 03/29/2010

Especially true for liberals.

[Durango]

04:51 PM on 03/29/2010

It was"Liberals" who saved the whales from extinction, fool.

[PWM]

05:55 PM on 03/29/2010

You mean like our Founding Fathers who were liberals one and all?

[AnonieMoose]

03:25 PM on 03/29/2010

Yes! They have rebounded....now lets kill them all again!

.....and the circle of death continues.

[PWM]

09:24 AM on 03/30/2010

Their thinking is along the lines: Oh, their population is up 10%, lets now go and kill 20%.

[xxpossum]

02:32 PM on 03/29/2010

another disgusting example of greed is good