Whales beaten by Japan

Helina

Helina

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Is there any whale watching in Caribbean ?

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Japan's whaling commission scam

Japan is gaining allies by recruiting new countries into the commission which then vote with Japan and help them gain their objective of resumed commercial whaling. This recruitment process involves offering fisheries aid to poor coastal countries in exchange for their support for Japan's whaling policies.

Japan has secured the help of eight nations at the IWC in this way: six eastern Caribbean states, (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis), the Solomon Islands and most recently Guinea. All of these countries regularly attend IWC meetings and speak in favour of a resumption of commercial whaling, voting with Japan on all occasions.

I have never eaten whale meat though seen them a few times.
 
What we should all do about it is make a huge song and dance about it and persuade everybody to stop buying any products from Japan ... cars, tellies, cameras etc.
 
Strangely enough, yes, there is whale watching out here in the Caribbean - and one of the most popular places to go whale watching from is Dominica.......

So here on the one hand in Dominica we have keen whale conservationists earning an honest living taking people out on whale watching expeditions - and they do apparently stand a very good chance of seeing whales on each trip - while on the other hand the Government is happily accepting aid from Japan in exchange for being one of Japan's obedient poodles at the IWC.
This aid is in the form of fishing harbours, long lining fishing vessels, technical assistance with fisheries programmes, probably various other non fishy or whaley projects as well.

But it is 'One Country, One Vote' at the IWC meetings - so if Japan takes 8 little island states under her wing, and tells them to jump when required, she has immense clout at these meetings, and hence she is virtually guaranteed to push through any proposed resolution such as resuming whaling.

I am just amazed that the recipients of this aid, especially countries like Dominica, cannot see that there is far more potential revenue to be gained from taking tourists out in boats to observe alive whales, rather than chopping said whales up and flogging them off to be converted into McWhale hamburgers.

It all baffles me.
Or maybe not.
Once Government Crats are involved in any sort of decision making of this nature, you know that logical and sensible conclusions will never be reached.

QED.
 
Seafly, your proposal is admirable in principal, but in practice would it really work?

Can you really see the population of any overly developed (re acquisition of consumer goods) Nation voluntarily placing such a trade embargo on a country like Japan and thus depriving said population from the vast amounts of cheap electronic gadgetry that they crave?
I think not.
 
No ... of course it wouldn't work - I said it's what we should do!

There was a time when the French dictated that all Japanese car imports had to be processed through a customs post somewhere up in the Alps ... didn't half slow up the number of Japanese cars being imported .... wonder if they still do it?
 
The French tried the same thing with VHS recorders in the '80's. They would only allow customs clearance through a tiny port somewhere (I forget where).

So to get round it the Japanese built a final assembly plant in France, ergo; the Japanese product could flow into the EU, and the crafty French got a few jobs out of it.

Having worked on an anti-whaling campaign in the North Sea, (the Norwegian Minke whale 'scientific' quota), I know there used to be (and maybe still happens) crate loads of 'engineering parts' flown out from Norway to Japan every week during the season.
 
Don't forget that Iceland is also catching whales again - when I looked around their decommissioned whaling stations some years ago I never thought they would get back in the act. They are otherwise so crazy about conservation. And they're getting away with it.

We might find it difficult to boycot Japanese electrical goods, but there's no problem in putting pressure on Iceland by blockading Iceland shops - now owned by the rapacious Baugur corporation of Iceland. Where is Greenpeace when you need them?

PWG
 
And even Norway is caching whales. But what do they have that could be boycoted ? Oil ? Pullovers ? Aluminium ? Quite difficult to try to avoid these. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
There is one way, very naughty I must admit and would take a fair bit of organising, some would even call this enviromental terrorism.

You get a bunch of lads with rebreathers (no bubbles) go into a south african port, (where the jap whaling fleets resupply and hangout) a bunch of plastic explosives and trays, No! dont sink them, pack around propellor shafts of whalers and mother ship, in shaped charges, so you dont sink them, dont want to hurt anybody! Blow off all the props and damage the shafts. No whaling this year! Or many more years, because the costs would be so high to repair, the whalers would probably go belly up! Do a few tricks like that and bobs yer' auntie!

Yep, I am a little militant! Had enough of these arseholes!
 
[ QUOTE ]
should we rather tell these Caribean countries that no whales no tourists = less money than Japonese pribes !

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, that's sensible. With whales to watch, the tourism probably would bring in more money to the economy overall than 'bribes' - unfortunately, its more than slightly possible that a portion of the bribes goes directly, or indirectly, into the pockets of decision makers...so their choice would be 'easy money for me today, for practically no effort' or 'more tourists spending more money, but not very much coming my way'
 
Well, it might be quixotic but I've done exactly that, writing to the PM, tourism and fishing ministries of Japan, Iceland, Norway (I know, that's not the complete list but they're the 'big boys'). Only Norway had the decency to reply, declaring they loved whales to bits. I shall be getting a new car, hifi and TV soon; they won't be Japanese (or Norwegian!).
 
[ QUOTE ]
Seafly, your proposal is admirable in principal, but in practice would it really work?

Can you really see the population of any overly developed (re acquisition of consumer goods) Nation voluntarily placing such a trade embargo on a country like Japan and thus depriving said population from the vast amounts of cheap electronic gadgetry that they crave?

[/ QUOTE ] Vast amounts of CHEAP electronic gadgetry? Japan? That was 50 years ago. The cheap stuff comes from China now.

But you're right in that we have become dependant on Japanese goods - especially machinery at the quality end of the market. You may think you're buying an engine made in Europe, but likely as not the guts of it are made by Kubota.

A couple of weeks ago, my not-so-cheap Makita belt sander's motor seized. It is 27 years old. Informal advice from friends was that I may as well chuck it an buy a new one. Makita agent wanted 27 GBP plus VAT to establish whether it was reparable and provide an estimate. He offered me a 10% discount on exactly the same model, listed at an eyewatering 340 GBP.

So I take my beloved sander apart myself, and it's a beauty to behold, give or take the odd ball bearing rolling across the floor like a jumping bean. Man at parts shop says it's a standard bearing, but doesn't have one, try the tractor agents. Man at tractor agents slaps one on the desk 20 seconds after my request. Cost? Call it a fiver for two. After reassembly it's as good as new.

Japan's near-domination of the quality market may eventually go the way of Europe's. I notice that my latest purchase, a Makita cordless drill, was made in the USA.
 
Bamse, I think you hit the nail squarely on its head here with your comment - and I think that it is probably very relevant to politicocrats and governments everywhere, the Caribbean included.

After all, is this not the primary reason why most politicocrats seek these jobs? They might claim to have a desire to serve their country assiduously, but I tend to be skeptical and cynical when such claims are made (usually at election time).
 
Perhaps part of the reason is that these whaling countries all have high prices, hellish weather or both, so they are among the few countries that aren't sensitive to the tourism potential of whales untroubled by hunting. Having said that, anyone who can contemplate killing whales must be seriously lacking in moral sense.
 
[ QUOTE ]
They are otherwise so crazy about conservation. And they're getting away with it.

[/ QUOTE ]

It isn't a conservation issue; sustainable yields are far higher than the quotas (see the 2005 report of the scientific comitee of the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission).

If you are worried about conservation, then I would be more concerned about Cod fisheries than Icelandic whaling if I were you.
 
Re: Whales beat Japan.

Sperm whales can, so can orcas'

Sperm whales are, I believe, the worlds largest carnivores. Certainly the largest of the toothed whales.
 
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