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But there is NO valid reason for hunting whales at present. These whalers are a pointless brutal anachronism.

I read your statement with some interest. Certainly there is "no valid reason" for alot of what humans do. Nowadays people eat what they eat because it gives them pleasure

Today there is no reason why humans eat meat of any kind. Or certain plants for that matter. If it's a matter of nutrition, a mixture of daily requirements is served to patients by nasal gastric tubes who other couldn't eat regular food. This nutritious gruel, however unpleasant, nullifies the "need" for restaurants, home kitchens and cooking in general. Freeing up wasted time cooking, fossil fuels and saving thousands if not millions of acres that could be rendered back to wilderness.br />
If you looked hard enough I imagine one could get the government to ban a whole list of items that are "pointless","brutal", or "anachronistic" But would you want to live like that? Would you want to be FORCED to live like that?

But if you insist forcing your values upon someone else's, then why should they be able to force their ways upon you?

And because there's always someone who would be offended by your dietary habits and ways of preparation and why consider it wasteful or "barbaric"(eating pork, cows shellfish, wildlife, eggs, cow milk,palm oil, processed foods, fatty foods, salty foods fried foods, etc, etc.) we all will be according to governmental degrees, mandated to eat the less objectionable food and it most likely will be a tasteless but inoffensive gruel.

Or maybe it's best to let the people to decide what they prefer to eat as long as it doesn't drive an species into extinction. I know I don't want some government hack or UN bureaucrat knocking on my door and take my fried chicken away from my table.... BTW: Whale were not hunted to near ectinxtion because people ate them, they were hunted to render them into lamp oil. And until we run out of electricity by coal, natural gas etc, the whales will be safe...

I do native plant habitat restoration. I can tell you for a fact that biodiversity and productivity cannot be optimized without harvesting. Every plant and animal produces more of its kind than the system can support without consumption, whether it be grazing, browsing, or predation. The same is true for the maintenance of the foundations of the marine food pyramid.

I lived on the water in an estuary for nine years. The flow of food into the water may not make it clean, but it sure as heck supports more life. People are capable of managing even that system on a spot by spot basis as a service to maintain those productive spawning and rearing systems, complete with metrology, telemetry, information systems, validation, and risk management architectures.

THAT is a 21st Century idea. "Preservation" per se, has become a demonstrably backward and destructive model.

Do you regularly scan dated posts for commenting?

I don't think hunting whales is quite in the same category as hunting deer, bear, etc.

Your point about whale oil being a justification for killing them in the past is really a good example of why there is no reason to kill them now.

No one, to my knowledge, eats whale meat except some Arctic tribes, and, of the course, the Japanese, who have a penchant for consuming ANY kind of biological product because of alleged health benefits, or merely because they want to.

Its my understanding that lot of the whales harvested wind up in dog food - hardly a justification for killing them.

In my opinion, the MAIN reason these people want to hunt whales is because they always HAVE and want to generate revenue to keep their ships and crews employed in this business.

Let them fish for orange roughy.

In short, since we no longer need whale oil, and since whales are still in short supply, and since they are such magnificent,. intelligent creatures, its my OPINION that whale fishing should continue to be banned.

If their numbers increase to the point where they pose some kind of problem for marine traffic - highly unlikely, this subject can be revisited in the future.

I resent people trying to pigeon hole me as some kind of Greenpiece nut or anti-hunting fanatic as I am not. I have no problem with hunting. But as an intelligent individual, I think each case should be reviewed on its own merits, as stewards of the world, human beings need to exercise some discretion in situations like this.