‘and possibly cause to go extinct entire species of whales, foolishness.’
hyperbole, the species of whales that the Japanese hunt are not endangered. At least get your facts straight before getting all emotional.
Really, which ones are the hunting ...
This time, however, the whalers are planning what’s expected to be its largest hunt in decades; along with about 850 minke and 50 finback whales, the fleet says it plans to harpoon as many as 50 humpback whales for the first time since hunting the endangered species was banned in 1963.
Japan has cited its long history as a whaling nation and its historic reliance on whale meat for protein as reasons why it should be continued to allow to hunt despite the IWC ban. But Japanese consumption has become so negligible that local governments are encouraging schools to incorporate whale in their lunch programs, while thousands of tons of whale meat remain stockpiled in freezers. The bigger issue, observers say, is whaling’s impact on far more popular forms of seafood. Japan, which consumes half of the world’s tuna catch, recently admitted to exceeding its quota for southern bluefin tuna set under an agreement with Australia and New Zealand, as overfishing threatens to decimate the animal’s population. Plunging global fish stocks, along with a growing taste for sushi in China and the West, make Japan very uneasy about its future access to fresh seafood. So holding a firm line on the sustainable harvesting of whales, the argument goes, can help stave off a larger fight over more important fishing rights down the road. Says Moronuki: “Our whaling culture is near extinction because of the moratorium on commercial whaling. We need to make sure this doesn’t happen to other marine resources.”
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1686486,00.html#ixzz0uQ7mvvfK
They are killing them and then begging thier population to eat the stuff, finally trying to shove it down their kids throats in the school lunch program. If left alone the Japanese would fish the oceans to thier extinction, they will wipe out the tuna too, they are very irresponsible.