Japan's fleet sets sail to kill 1,000 whales off Antarctica. Do I care? I think that I do but why?
First, the excuse that this is science could only be accepted by those who could support intelligent design as science:The fleet sailed on Tuesday from Shimonoseki port for the first year of a "research" programme called JARPA-2. It envisages catching up to 935 minke whales and 10 fin whales during the southern hemisphere summer to "...monitor the Antarctic ecosystem, model competition among whale species... elucidate temporal and spatial changes in stock structure and improve the management procedure for the Antarctic minke whale stocks."
There is a high chance that the fleet of scientists will be successful in elucidating spatial changes in stock structure through killing 1,000 whales. That is pretty much a no brainer. High marks, scientists, high marks.- I grew up in Atlantic Canada in the anti-sealing times. Big news in 1979 in high school biology. I never bought it. Maybe I should of when the cod soon started to disappear after the sealing stopped. But if you think about where the seals and cod live and what is up river from their continental shelf home...maybe it was not the seals so much as the draino, the liquid plumber, the pharmacuticals and other stuff being flushed down into the great septic system of the eastern North America. Why is the killing of whales any less skewed by those not involved?
- And it is not the animal rights aspect. I don't mind the eating of any animal below a primate. I am Scottish and we'll eat pretty much any thing. We push steaks aside to get to the stewed kidneys. But there is that lack of necessity. Why must half a world be crossed for the acquisition of a bun stuffing? Maybe it is gastronomic hegemony? The desire to have dominion over the world through consuming it all. I know I don't get that.
Have I bought into big media's spin? Which big media's spin - the pro or the con? Maybe I have just made sure I learned enough to feel guilt but just enough to learn a little less to feel a lot of guilt or actually do something. I do recall a time from before these little guilts mine and the world's when I was very young and Dad mentioned that he had performed the burial of the guy or a kid of the guy who has invented the harpoon gun shown above.
Comments
optimus - November 9, 2005 12:20 AM
Festival director: That is an endangered species. What would be the scientific purpose of killing it?
Zissou: Revenge.
Hans - November 9, 2005 9:56 AM
the problem you are sensing with the whaling expidition, i think, relates to the destructive disregard vs. need dilemma that is at the heart of many environmental issues. It goes beyond the "meat is murder" that so often polarizes and stereotypes the sides of the debate about issuse like whaling or the seal hunt. the muddle you describe is what alot of people feel: there is something wrong but it is difficult to articulate. in relation to whaling, the japanese have to pretend their slaughter is a scientific enterprise because almost all whaling is banned by international agreements such as the International Whaling Commission guidelines. what is the difference between this japanese expidition and an inuit hunter killing an endangered beluga? answer: the japanese whaler is going to use methods that will destroy the whale stock and untold aspects of the ocean eco-system AND then sell the product at increasing rates of profits to a market that has plenty of other meat sources that are not so wantonly destructive. the inuit hunter is going to eat and use the entire beluga over the course of the winter based on his family's immediate needs. its not about the death of the animal: animals die everyday, just check your local abattoir or backyard. its about the manner of harvesting (i.e. killing) the animals. Humans have the ability to make an ethical choice about whether rapacious whaling practices or the over-fishing methods that led to the cod crisis are a good idea or not. The seal hunt is a whole other ball of wax....
Alan - November 9, 2005 10:09 AM
You have summed up my existence in this line:<blockquote class="smalltext">...the muddle you describe is what a lot of people feel: there is something wrong but it is difficult to articulate.</blockquote
Hans - November 9, 2005 10:40 AM
Okay, that's enough of you blowing my horn: let me blow my own horn for a sec:
we, but especially, smart edumacated people, have to apply rigourous critical thinking to all the stuff that is going on around us. we have to cut through agenda-pushing and axe-grinding. we have to use our rationality to pierce the clouds of apathy and propaganda and emotion and self-interest. this is what i try to do on every issue and it is what many people do not do enough of.
Alan - November 9, 2005 10:42 AM
I get sleepy when I try to do that.
portland - November 9, 2005 12:03 PM
hey i make fun of you when youre dopey but i say youre good when youre good. give the man his credit. that was good. what are you being such a smart ass for today?
Alan - November 9, 2005 12:05 PM
I really do get sleepy. Hans is right, too, though.
Damian - November 9, 2005 3:46 PM
This is the sort of post where you're at your thought-provoking best, Alan. Well laid-out.
Hans - November 10, 2005 11:23 AM
I'm sleepy right now....
Alan - November 10, 2005 11:35 AM
We are sympatico, you and I, Old Heuveltonian. That would be a great name of a sports team - Old Heuveltonians.