It’s a weak argument when you ask someone to prove a negative. However.
Minske whales are considered “Least Concern” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
Here’s their scale according to risk of extinction:
Extinct
Extinct in the wild
Critically endangered
Endangered
Vulnerable
Threatened
Conservation dependent
Near Threatened
Least Concern
Just for reference, the American Bison is listed as Near Threatened. So according to the IUCN, Minske whales are not endangered. Now prove to me they are endangered.
You display hubris in stating the Japanese don’t need the whales. Japanese don’t eat much beef but they don’t tell us to stop slaughtering cattle.
I love wild life and consider myself an environmentalist in the sense I do my best not to pollute or waste. But I’m also an avid hunter and will use natures resources in responsible manner.
Japanese eat nearly 4 million tons of meat a year.
the Japanese don’t need the whales. Whale meat accounts for 0.2 percent of overall meat consumption and 1%. of the 500.000 tons of tuna. The warehouses are full of it. Japanese whaling days are numbered. The Japanese people are ticked that the whalers who took taxpayers money and cannot posibly pay them back.
Earlier this year, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that the whalers were struggling to pay back $1 billion Yen in borrowed public funds. With a massive 4,000 tonne stockpile of unconsumed whalemeat and Asahi Shimbun reports of consumer disinterest in “bloody drippings”, the whalers seem to be onto a sure loser. To make matters worse, the annual increase in targeted Southern Ocean whales means that supply is already outstripping demand, a situation “unthinkable for an ordinary business entity” according to the accountant of a major audit corporation quoted by the Asahi Shimbun.