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Snake Catcher Victoria

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Japanese whalers get $28m in earthquake cash - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
[h=1]Japanese whalers get $28m in earthquake cash[/h]AM
By Adam Harvey
Updated December 07, 2011 10:52:27
Photo: The Japanese whaling fleet had a run-in with Sea Shepherd anti-whaling protesters last year. (JoAnne McArthur/Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: AAP)
Related Story: Japanese whaling fleet leaves port
Related Story: Japan beefs up security for whaling fleet

Map: Japan

Japan's whaling fleet has left its home port for another turbulent season in the Southern Ocean, this year courtesy of extra money from the nation's earthquake recovery fund.
Three vessels have set sail from the port of Shimonoseki, in western Japan, with a mission to catch 900 whales over the next three months.
The Japanese fleet will have beefed-up security this year after its last season was cut short by the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group.
The fleet did not get anywhere near its target last season and Sea Shepherd is hoping for a repeat performance.
But there is anger in Japan and elsewhere this year about the source of new funds for the trip.
The Japan Fisheries Agency says the trip's use of $28 million from the earthquake recovery fund is legitimate, because one of the towns devastated by the March earthquake and tsunami was a whaling port.


























Audio: Earthquake funds given to Japanese whalers (AM)
Greenpeace Japan executive director Junichi Sato says it is a massive stretch to link whaling to the earthquake.
"It's not related to the recovery at all," he said.
"It is used to cover the deaths of the whaling program because the whaling program itself has been suffering from big financial problems."
Three Sea Shepherd vessels are preparing to depart from Albany and Hobart in the next 10 days to disrupt the whaling.
The group's founder, Paul Watson, says a lot of people should be angry that recovery money is going to whaling.
"I know there's a lot of angry people who said 'look, I didn't send my money to help the victims of the tsunami only to have you use it to go down and kill some whales'," he said.
Photo: The Bob Barker will leave from Hobart and two other Sea Shepherd ships will join them Albany. (ABC, Michael Dalla Fontana)

Mr Watson says this summer is bound to get ugly in the Southern Ocean.
"I did ask the Australian Government for assistance," he said.
"I think the responsible thing considering the number of Australian citizens involved would be to send a vessel down to keep the peace, but they don't seem to be too interested in that.
Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke says whaling in the Southern Ocean is wrong and unlawful but there are no plans to send a Customs or Navy vessel.
But Mr Burke says Australia is taking legal action in the International Court of Justice to stop the whaling.
"Unfortunately as with all legal action it takes longer than you want it to," he said.
"We've taken the toughest line of any country in the world by launching this legal action. We're throwing everything at it."
Mr Burke says spending earthquake recovery money on whaling is not appropriate.
"I don't think it's appropriate for any money to be spent on Japanese whaling," he said.
"Regardless of where money's coming from our position is really simple. There's no shades of grey here.
"We believe the Southern Ocean is a whaling sanctuary and all whaling that occurs there is wrong."
Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt says the lack of an Australian vessel is a weak response.
"There is a risk of a significant potentially fatal conflict at sea between whalers and protesters and the Government must dispatch a customs vessel by Christmas in order to coincide with the likely arrival of both the whaling fleet and protesters in the Southern Ocean," he said.
Japan say it will have extra security for the trip this year, which is needed to protect a legitimate "scientific" enterprise.
The Japan Fisheries Agency issued a statement to AM saying the Japanese government's aim for the whaling voyage is "to get the scientific data".
The first whales should be caught by the end of the month, with the season to last until March.
Topics: whaling, conservation, environment, world-politics, japan, australia
First posted December 07, 2011 08:44:20
 
But how many sea creatures will die out before whaling does?
 
It's ok they will kill themselves eventually due to the high levels of mercury found in large sea mammals or fish when they are eaten. Look at this it's about Minamata disease, it's basically the same situation.

Minamata disease - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
yea but i bet before each person get the disease they've already had a kid or two that grow up and kill more whales so the disease wont stop anything just shorten their life span
 
Why not get those lazy Occupy Melbourne blobs to join up with this lot (Sea Shepherd) and actually do something productive. Now that's a cause I can relate to! All the power to them!
 
Word on the street is that although the whaling fleet has "beefed up" security as per the article; I think you may find this year that there are a whole bunch of cool surprises coming at them this time around, just sayin....
 
Disgusted to think in this day and age that the Japanese still don't get that these beautiful animals are one of the most endangered species on earth. Are they seriously that stupid and nieve? Don't they watch wildlife documentaries over there on whales? They are the most majestic, loving animals that are so vulnerable to attack because of their astounding size and the innocent curiosity shown towards humans.

Obviously they still haven't learnt what Karma is... perhaps another tsunami is in order, but this time a direct hit on the whaling fleet!
 
What dont you guys kill and eat stuff your studying for science. It's amazing most researches avoid killing things. The way I look at it if they really had to kill the whale to find something out, wouldn't it be better not knowing.
 
im pretty sure there are plenty of other things to eat out there. But Japans "scientific research" might just prove me wrong.
 
To play devil's advocate for a minute here are a couple of points to maybe consider:
- I don't think they believe what they are doing is any more wrong than commercial fishing.
- Minkes are actually less endangered than Bluefin Tuna which Westerners are still happily eating.
- My understanding is that whaling contributes reasonably strongly to their economy.
- It's incredibly difficult to get an entire country (especially Japan) to change their culture. These are people who still believe Bushido is the best moral code to live by.
I'm not saying these points make them "right" but before we condemn every Japanese person it's probably pertinent to consider things from both sides to try to understand why people do things. I think if a lot of them just saw video of a whale being hunted and running for its life before being hit by a harpoon, many of them would change their attitude. It certainly hit me very hard when I first saw it.
 
I highly recommend people watch this. Warning it is very confronting. THE COVE | On DVD Now | Madman Entertainment

Its about the dolphins they eat as well. I understand what your saying sax but it's the way they go about it. Japan is paying small Caribbean island so that the vote to support their whale cull. These countries don't even have whales around them.
 
while we might eat tuna and other fish from the sea's we all know we are eating them and in fact a lot of places wont buy tuna unless its been caught correctly, and there are nets around now that allow certain fish species to escape being caught up, also the tuna has to have been caught properly with NO dolphin deaths normally associated with netting them

also i do believe its the japanese that still eat shark fin soup in which they catch the sharks cut off their fins and push them back into the oceans alive

now in this day of so much technology and most of this stuff comes from Japan i cant see why any research they need to be done on whales cant be done this way instead of having to kill the whales. also i cant understand why they need to kill 'hundreds' of whales in the name of research either

so lets call it what it really is, they are slaughtering whales for food and using the old 'scientific research' as an excuse to justify their actions

i also read that a lot of the 'modern' Japanese are NO longer eating whale meat so the government is actually serving it up to children at school at their meal times to try and get them hooked on eating it as most of what they sell in the stores just rots as not many buy it anymore

also to the best of my knowledge other countries that are killing whales for food dont go out and kill thousands but take just enough for them to eat
 
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