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I don’t buy arguments that the Japanese are in the right because Australia’s claim to these waters is in dispute, since Japan has also shown complete contempt for the Southern Ocean Sanctuary declared by the International Whaling Commission (different from the location over which Australia has unilaterally claimed jurisdiction), of which Japan is a member. When that sanctuary was established in 1994, Japan was the ONLY one of the 24 countries voting that opposed it. Commercial whaling is banned by the IWC in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, so Japan just goes ahead and conducts massive hunts and claims they aren’t commercial, but rather “scientific research”. If you’re going to run around breaking laws established by an authority you claim to recognize, you have no moral standing to object to others doing the same.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ocean_Whale_Sanctuary

Who's rule of right do we use internationally? Yours?

Outside the political limits of any sovereignty, actions and force rule, because, thank God, there is no world government to bestow "rights".

Amongst sovereign nations, you duke it out, one wins and thereby "has the right", which is human, proper and will always work to keep the human race strong and fit to deal with uncompromising and unsympathetic reality.

You sound just like a bleeding heart, hoss.

Thanks for forcing me to learn more about this.

It seems that Japan is correct in ignoring Australia’s “law” concerning extending their border to the Antarctic.

Second, after reading the IWC website, these guys are a farce. Sure they started out to be an “inclusive” organization to protect the world’s whaling population from overharvesting, but reading their own website shows that they have turned into an arm of Greenpeace. No wonder the Japanese ignore them now.

Did you know that there has been a complete moratorium on whaling since 1982? None, zero, zip, nada whales OTHER THAN BY NATIVE PEOPLES can hunt whales. Reading the meeting highlights these jokers get together year after year after year to debate lifting the moratorium but it never happens. Instead new research groups are formed to look into it. Monaco seems to be their favorite meeting place.

What a joke.

>I don’t buy arguments that ...

So what?

>so Japan just goes ahead and conducts massive hunts and claims they aren’t commercial, but rather “scientific research”.

Which, even a cursory reading of the link that you provided will show, in fact, that Japan is within those rules.

Now you clearly don't like that either, and that may be an issue for you, as well, but that is what it is.

And oz courts and even the 9th circus can all rule whatever they please, as well, but it means nothing of consequence unless you are simply trying to get into a pissing contest with Japan.

I agree with what you have said, but with a less harsh tone. The motivations for the Japanese "desperation" for whale meat and products is very complex. I know becuase I am a professional cross cultural businessman and author, with expertise and experience in Japan.

Whaling to Japan is like Deer and Elk hunting here in the USA, multipled by a factor of 5. Imagine telling American Hunters that Elk in Colorado are endangered and there will be no more hunting,etc, transpose that scenario here, and you will appreciate the complexities involved. That is why the International Commission has made little or no progress with Japan, they don't have the communicative cross cultural expertise to solve the problem.

I believe whales are a finaite resource that need cultivation. The Japanese are experts at cultivating finite resources, it is one of the many reasons their ancient culture has managed to survive for two thousand years. That is what needs to be accessed.

(Tell the whaling commission they can hire me as a consultant, LOL.)

The greenies have indeed met their match, and if they push it further, blood will flow on both sides of this equation, or maybe on three sides if you include the whales.

THe whaling commission thinks it can make progress by just involving the Japanese Government and the Marine Companies in Japan that do the whaling. The demand for whale meet drives the dynamic, which is created by the many high gear commercial fish markets in Japan, that conduct daily auctions for commercial wholesale consumers. Thats where the effort and diplomacy needs to be focused in the Japanese market structure for whale meat and the other products, such as bone, oil, etc. Nothing from a whale goes to waste with the Japanese.

So how do we approach it. Japans unique position in whaling, and its cultural connections to it need to be acknowledged. That of Iceland and other Scandanavian countries does also. They need to be required somehow to manage and cultivate the rsource instead of fighting international consensus, which they can always succeed in, because of a paucity of the military type of enforcement required to preserve the resource.That type of enforcement will never evolve in the whaling industry.Thats a fact that needs to be faced. The expertise of those nations who d still whale needs to be accessed co-operatively and diplomatically.