Japan spends earthquake relief funds on enhanced whaling security

[pistachio]

Japan admits disaster funds to be used for whaling | News.com.au

Interested to see what people's thoughts are on this??

 

[Fadi]

"Commercial whaling is banned under an international treaty but since 1987 Japan has used a loophole to carry out "lethal research" on the creatures in the name of science."

Wouldn't it be more profitable to work on amending this law for starters? Get rid of/fix this loophole and then accuse a sovereign country of braking international law. Until such time, I'd view green peace actions as no more than harassment. You've asked for my thoughts, I've given them.

PS: I'm against killing unnecessarily, irrespective of who/what is being killed.

Fadi.

 

[Christian]

Why do they kill them anyway?

I find it trivial to condem the killing of one animal over another...

Like there is some sort of moral difference between killing a cow and a whale?

 

[pistachio]

I think both of you may have missed the point....

They have siphoned off funds for the earthquake relief fund to provide extra security for whaling. So donations that were made from all around the world have been used to allow them more security in their questionable whaling practices.

But with regards to the whaling side of it:

Fadi: I agree, I can only assume there is a legal hurdle why this hasn't already been done. I suspect that perhaps it is not able to be changed, at least not simply.

Christian: There is a difference in that whales are severely endangered. The annoying thing is, if they just left them alone for say 50 years, there would be such a large population that commercial fishing would be viable. Unsustainable fishing (and other practices) is a major gripe of mine as it is so short sighted.

 

[wingman]

I don't particularly care about the whaling to be honest, if that's their hobby so be it. They'll soon realise when they run out of them that they need new hobbies and the whales in other regions of the world will still be doing okay.

However, I'm quite disturbed by them misusing donated funds for anything other than rebuilding damaged property. This is exactly why I never give to charity or donate to any emergency causes as you have no control over how much of it is received or how it gets used. I'd much rather donate physical items of use or volunteer my time helping someone / some organisation fixing something.

 

[pistachio]

I don't particularly care about the whaling to be honest, if that's their hobby so be it. They'll soon realise when they run out of them that they need new hobbies and the whales in other regions of the world will still be doing okay.

Its not quite that simple... but I won't get into a whaling debate.

However, I'm quite disturbed by them misusing donated funds for anything other than rebuilding damaged property. This is exactly why I never give to charity or donate to any emergency causes as you have no control over how much of it is received or how it gets used. I'd much rather donate physical items of use or volunteer my time helping someone / some organisation fixing something.

Exactly right.

The fact that they are reappropriating the funds to whaling is just insulting.

 

[oldcorollas]

all government funds come from the same place.. the publics pockets.
how it is allocated or reallocated really doesn't matter, it all gets spent/frittered away somehow.

Christian: There is a difference in that whales WERE severely endangered. The annoying thing is, if they just left them alone for say 50 years, there would be such a large population that commercial fishing would be viable. Unsustainable fishing (and other practices) is a major gripe of mine as it is so short sighted.

Australia was a big part of that unsustainable whaling industry for a long time, and used them for fertiliser and dogmeat but a generation or two has changed Australia from a proud whaling country, to one that is bitterly opposed to one particular nations whaling (while ignoring the other 10? that do it. even the US allows "cultural" whaling). that's a good thing. same public shift ocurred in japan and germany after WW2, and i dare say many other countries and many other topics under generational revision too.

so far the moratorium has already been in for 35 years. In that time, the majority of published whale research has come from Japan..... so you say another 15 years and good to go? really, i'm only kidding, I don't agree with it either.


I don't understand why Australia refuses to do whaling research? If Aus did it by non-lethal means (with the backing/acknowledgment of the IWC), then Japan would have absolutely no leg to stand on for their "research" program.
THAT would solve the problem entirely!

plus, it's funny hearing of poor uni students having to jump into clouds of whale poo to conduct non-lethal sampling of stomach contents

besides, many thousands of whale are killed and injured by ship propellors (and drag nets) every year, and no-one raises a whimper? shipping industry too big to care?

Fisheries Agency official Tatsuya Nakaoku said the extra security was designed to ensure safer hunts, and ultimately help coastal towns that are largely rely on whaling as they recover from the March 11 disasters.
"The government will support the reconstruction effort of a whaling town and nearby areas," he told AFP today.

i suppose that's how they ticked the box?

 

[Rambodian]

I think whaling is pointless, all i know about it is that there is hardly any whales left and those that are migrate around the world so targeting them drastically reduces their numbers. Its terrible that they used those funds for such a pointless exercise (killing whales). From the programs I've watched on this, most Japanese don't even eat whale meat and they have vast amounts stored all over the country they can't use anyway. There is no justification for such abuse of nature, but I can't see anyone stopping them.

 

[MikeW]

They're bastards every one of them, no surprise here that they've syphoned off aid money to go hunt whales illegally. I heard Bob Brown say they've spent about the same amount as all of Australia donated to the relief fund. So, in effect, we're paying for them to have extra security to go hunt whales illegally in our territorial waters. Bastards!

When I'm rich enough I'm going to go join Sea Shepherd for a year and take the fight to them first hand. In the meantime, I'll just keep donating to Sea Shepherd. Wish they'd bought that Russian Sub they were talking about for a while. Torpedo the bastards out of the water.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[oldcorollas]

most Japanese don't even eat whale meat and they have vast amounts stored all over the country they can't use anyway.

This is true.
but there are hundreds of thousands of whales in the ocean (or millions? no-one has bothered to count), and the ones they hunt for "research" are not the endangered ones...

In aus, killing animals for carbon credits is acceptable, as is exporting hundreds of thousands of live animals to be slaughtered inhumanely or die on ships it all depends what moral high horse each person wants to ride

Mike, how many human lives are the equivalent of 1 whale life, or vice versa?
Are you donating to the "stop international shipping" fund?

Sea shepherd is such an awesome idea .. I wish i could think of a scam to get millions of dollars so I didn't have to work for the rest of my life (apart from trying to win lotto) lol


edit: it will be interesting to see if the international court strips Australia of our illegally claimed waters... wouldn't that leave people red-faced

 

[Admin]

just remember that siphoning off money also happans here in australia , the black friday bushfire appeal here in vic got $372 million in donations , the last time i heard only a fraction of that had acually been giving to the victims of black friday

 

[walt]

The qld flood appeal was not well handled either, they ended up giving it to everyone in the towns affected, not just the people affected!

This is why i don't give money to appeals, i know the goverment won't use it right, i would rather give it to someone i know affected.

 

[Admin]

The qld flood appeal was not well handled either, they ended up giving it to everyone in the towns affected, not just the people affected!

This is why i don't give money to appeals, i know the goverment won't use it right, i would rather give it to someone i know affected.

all those administration costs , those 5 course meals and business class flights to discuss where the money should go

 

[Figjam Brah]

^^ lol yeah. Thats fucked... Government never does anything properly...

 

[wingman]

The qld flood appeal was not well handled either, they ended up giving it to everyone in the towns affected, not just the people affected!

This is why i don't give money to appeals, i know the goverment won't use it right, i would rather give it to someone i know affected.

Could you imagine the nightmare / timeframe of trying to work out who was affected and who wasn't? They'd have to come up with some kind of critieria, then some way of deciding how to handle people who score borderline on that criteria.

I think they did the right thing. Basically everyone in those towns was affected indirectly at the very least.

But yea, never have and never will donate money to anything. Far too much of it goes to administration costs and the tiny bit that does make the destination gets badly used. There are far more efficient ways of helping a fellow human being out.

 

[white lion]

it is a bit cheeky to use international aid money for whaleing , but if that species of whale is not endangered they should be able to harpoon on , I dont like the idea myself but i love roast lamb ,beef , I also love fish . We cop alot of shit from os about our kangaroo meat operation our wool industry cops flak for its mulesing practises ,

Just coz we dont like it or understand does not mean we should stop people from doing it