Whales

Discussions and information on all Southern African Mammals
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Dzombo
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Re: Whales

Post by Dzombo »

Richprins wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 12:35 pm What does the meat taste like?
Dunno.
There was no way I was going to eat some :evil:

I would imagine it's very rich -O-


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Flutterby
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Re: Whales

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Sad to see! :-( I probably also wouldn't try. :no:


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Richprins
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Re: Whales

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Grieving killer whale finally lets go of dead calf after carrying it for 17 days and 1000 miles – VIDEO
The whale is now back to feeding and frolicking with its pod

phpBB [video]


An orca whale that carried her deceased baby for 17 days and 1000 miles in a remarkable display of grief has let go of the calf and rejoined her pod according to the Center for Whale Research (CWR) in Washington state.

The CWR confirmed in an update posted online Saturday that the mother had been sighted without her calf vigorously chasing a school of salmon with her pod.

The calf died soon after the mother gave birth on July 24 off Canada’s west coast.

At the time the CWR reported that “the baby’s carcass was sinking and being repeatedly retrieved by the mother, who was supporting it on its forehead and pushing it through the choppy seas.”

“Her tour of grief is now over and her behavior is remarkably frisky,” Saturday’s update said.

The whale was in good physical condition according to the Center which was able to capture telephoto digital images of her from the shore.

The CWR says the calf’s death underlines the dire state of the so-called southern resident orca community of which only 75 remain.

The whales have been struggling due to a lack of salmon.

The last calf to survive at birth was three years ago. In the past 20 years 40 orcas have been born into the group while 72 have died.

SOURCE: YOUTUBE


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Re: Whales

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Amazing :shock:


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Re: Whales

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:-(


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Re: Whales

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Pro- and anti- whaling nations brace for battle in Brazil

09.09.2018 AFP

Pro- and anti-whaling nations are set for a showdown when the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in Brazil from Monday as Japan leads an assault on a three-decade old moratorium on commercial whale hunting.

Tokyo heads into the biennial meeting as chair of the 88-nation body determined to shake-up what it says is a dysfunctional organisation mired in dispute and unable to make key decisions.

But Japan's package of proposals, entitled "The Way Forward", has left conservationists seething even before delegates have taken their seats at the 67th IWC meeting in the Brazilian surfing resort of Florianapolis.

They say it's a blatant attempt to overturn the 1986 moratorium and restore commercial whaling.

"This meeting is critical," said Patrick Ramage of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

"Member countries must stand together and push progress toward whale protection, not let this commission be pulled back into the bygone era of commercial whaling."

Key issues

Brazil as host country is instead trying to rally anti-whaling nations behind a "Florianopolis Declaration", which insists that commercial whaling is no longer a necessary economic activity and would allow the recovery of all whale populations to pre-industrial whaling levels.

Other key issues being discussed in the week-long meeting are risks to whales of human-made underwater noise pollution, ship strikes, climate change and "ghost-gear" entanglement - where whales are increasingly snared by abandoned fishing gear.

Nations opposed to whaling plan to renew a long-standing proposal for the creation of a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary, after previous proposals were knocked by the pro-whaling lobby.

Japan formally observes the moratorium but exploits a "scientific research" loophole to kill hundreds of the animals every year, despite international criticism.

It has regularly sought an easing of the IWC's prohibition on commercial whaling, and incoming chair Joji Morishita says there must be major changes at the Florianapolis meeting in order to break the deadlock between pro- and anti-whaling countries.

Japan argues that stocks of Minke whales and other species have recovered and proposes setting new catch quotas "for species whose stocks are recognised as healthy by the IWC's scientific committee".

Among Japan's proposed reforms is a rule change that would allow decisions to be made by simple majority vote, doing away with the current practice of a three-quarters majority.

Japan says the commission's decision making ability is hampered by this rule, because of the rift between supporters and opponents of whaling.

It also wants to set up a "Sustainable Whaling Committee" which would create catch-quotas for nations wishing to allow their nationals to hunt healthy whale populations for commercial purposes.

Commercial whaling

Ahead of the IWC meeting, Australia said it would "vehemently oppose" any attempts to undermine the moratorium.

The moratorium - agreed in 1986 amid fears that some species were becoming extinct - is still in place, with some exceptions.

Iceland and Norway are the only countries that allow commercial whaling and are likely to come under renewed pressure at the IWC meeting, which runs until Friday.

Iceland has come under direct pressure to end whaling from the European Union, which led an international protests in 2014.

The government in Reykjavik has defied criticism and gave the country's whale hunters permission to take 238 fin whales this year. Fin whales are considered endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Also, aboriginal subsistence hunting is allowed in several countries including the US, Russia, Greenland, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean.

Conservation groups are opposed to a proposal before the IWC to increase annual whale kill quotas for these countries, and automatic renewal of quotas every six years, without consulting the IWC's scientific committee.


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End of Whaling in the Southern Ocean

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Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
21 hrs ·

#BREAKING NEWS END OF WHALING IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN

Since 2002, Sea Shepherd has opposed Japanese whaling operations in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary with expeditions to Antarctic waters first in 2002 followed by continuous campaigns from 2005 until 2017.

During this period over 6,000 whales were saved from the harpoons of Japanese commercial whalers posing as research whalers by Sea Shepherd interventions.

In 2017, the Japanese government began to invest millions of dollars in security efforts to prevent Sea Shepherd from engaging their fleets. These security measures included military grade real time surveillance.

Although this prevented Sea Shepherd from returning to the Southern Ocean in 2018, it also placed Japan in a position of expending huge resources on continuous security.

In other words, the cost of preventing Sea Shepherd intervention became very expensive.

This and the verdict of the International Court of Justice that exposed Japanese research as fraudulent, coupled with worldwide condemnation of their Southern Ocean activities has in the opinion of Captain Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd led to this decision to declare they will openly undertake commercial whaling activities.

The scheme to pose as researchers will now be dropped and that means there can be absolutely no justification for hunting whales in an internationally established whale sanctuary. This will be the last year of Japanese whaling activities in the Southern Ocean.

Sea Shepherd’s objective of ending the slaughter of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary has been realized. This is a victory for the campaign to make the Southern Ocean a whaling free zone.

If Japan decides to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) it will allow the IWC to pass the motion to establish the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary thus effectively ending whaling in the Southern Hemisphere.

Japan will now join Norway and Iceland as rogue outlaw whaling nations in the North Pacific and the North Atlantic.

The Whale Wars in the Southern Ocean will soon be over. The focus now must be the Northern Hemisphere.

Sea Shepherd welcomes this announcement by Japan and views it as a positive development.

Captain Paul Watson issued a statement saying, “We are delighted to see the end of whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. We are delighted that we will soon have a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary and we look forward to continuing to oppose the three remaining pirate whaling nations of Norway, Japan and Iceland. Whaling as a ‘legal’ industry has ended. All that remains is to mop up the pirates.”

#SouthernOcean #Antarctica #Antartic #Whale #SaveTheWhales #SeaShepherd #Ocean #COnservation #DIrectAtcion


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Re: End of Whaling in the Southern Ocean

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Japan confirms it will quit IWC to resume commercial whaling

Japan will resume hunting in its waters in July but will end controversial expeditions to the Southern ocean

By Justin McCurry in Tokyo and Matthew Weaver Wed 26 Dec 2018 03.17 GMT First published on Wed 26 Dec 2018 02.59 GMT

Japan is facing international condemnation after confirming it will resume commercial whaling for the first time in more than 30 years.

The country’s fleet will resume commercial operations in July next 2019, the government’s chief spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said of the decision to defy the 1986 global ban on commercial whaling.

Suga told reporters the country’s fleet would confine its hunts to Japanese territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, adding that its controversial annual expeditions to the Southern Ocean – a major source of diplomatic friction between Tokyo and Canberra – would end.

He said Japan would officially inform the IWC of its decision by the end of the year, which will mean the withdrawal comes into effect by 30 June.

Its decision prompted criticism from conservationists and other nations including the UK and Australia.

The UK’s environment secretary, Michael Gove, said he was “extremely disappointed” by Japan’s move.

He said in a tweet: “The UK is strongly opposed to commercial whaling and will continue to fight for the protection and welfare of these majestic mammals.”

Greenpeace disputed Japan‘s view that whale stocks have recovered, noting also that ocean life is being threatened by pollution as well as overfishing.

“The declaration today is out of step with the international community, let alone the protection needed to safeguard the future of our oceans and these majestic creatures,” Sam Annesley, executive director at Greenpeace Japan, said in a statement.

“The government of Japan must urgently act to conserve marine ecosystems, rather than resume commercial whaling.”

It also accused Japan of timing the announcement to avoid criticism.

“It’s clear that the government is trying to sneak in this announcement at the end of year, away from the spotlight of international media, but the world sees this for what it is,” Annesley, said.

“Most whale populations have not yet recovered, including larger whales such as blue whales, fin whales and sei whales.”

Backbench Conservative MP and former foreign secretary Boris Johnson said Japan’s decision was “appalling” and urged it think again.

Astrid Fuchs, programme lead at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, said it was “terrible decision” that could encourage other countries to quit the IWC.

“We are very worried that it might set a precedent and that other countries might follow Japan’s lead and leave the commission ... especially South Korea where there is an interest in consuming whale meat in South Korea” she told BBC News.

She added: “The oversight that the IWC was having over Japan’s whaling will now be lost. We won’t know how many whales they are catching, we won’t know how they will report it. It might spell doom for some populations. There is an endangered population of Minke whales off Japan, which is already under threat.”

Erik Solheim, a Norwegian diplomat who was the head of the United Nations Environment Programme until earlier this year, said Japan’s decision to leave the international whaling commission was “dangerous”.

In a tweet he called for a global campaign to urge Japan to reconsider.

Jack Ashley, manager of the Cambridge University’s Zoology Museum said governments around the world should condemn the decision.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, Australia’s foreign minister Marise Payne and the environment minister, Melissa Price, said the Australian government was “extremely disappointed” that Japan was withdrawing from the commission and resuming commercial whaling.

“The International Whaling Commission plays a crucial role in international cooperation on whale conservation,” they said.

“The commission is the pre-eminent global body responsible for the conservation and management of whales and leads international efforts to tackle the growing range of threats to whales globally, including by-catch, ship strikes, entanglement, noise, and whaling.

“Their decision to withdraw is regrettable and Australia urges Japan to return to the Convention and Commission as a matter of priority.”

The Australian Marine Conservation Society said the decision to halt the Antarctic hunt would be “welcome and long overdue”. Its chief executive, Darren Kindleysides, called on the Australian government to demand the Japanese fleet left immediately rather than at the end of its normal hunting season in February or March.

“Australians have been fighting for decades to get the whalers out of the Antarctic,” Kindleysides said. “However, it would be a bittersweet victory if it comes with unchecked commercial whaling by Japan in their own waters, and their leaving could damage the future of the IWC itself.”

Wednesday’s announcement had been widely expected after Japan recently failed to win IWC support for a proposal to change the body’s decision-making process – a move that would have made it easier for Japan to secure enough votes to end the commercial whaling ban, which went into effect in 1986 to protect dwindling whale stocks.

Japan argues that the moratorium was supposed to be a temporary measure and has accused a “dysfunctional” IWC of abandoning its original purpose – managing the sustainable use of global whale stocks.

“I support the government’s decision” to withdraw, Itsunori Onodera, a former defence minister who advises the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on fisheries, told public broadcaster NHK. “I have attended IWC meetings several times in the past, and I was struck by their extremely biased views. The IWC has become a dysfunctional organisation.”

Japanese fisheries officials claim that populations of certain types of whale – such as the minke – have recovered sufficiently to allow the resumption of “sustainable” hunting.

It has used a loophole in the ban to hunt a certain number of whales for what it claims is scientific research. Byproduct from the hunts is sold on the domestic market, although Japan’s appetite for whale meat has declined dramatically since the postwar years, when it was an important source of protein.

The country ate 200,000 tons of whale meat a year in the 1960s, but consumption has plummeted to about 5,000 tons in recent years, according to government data.

Japan will join Iceland and Norway in openly defying the ban on commercial whale hunting.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... xFZKRBMWgI


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Re: End of Whaling in the Southern Ocean

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One may have to look at the whaling thing a bit differently...they have been increasing, while humans have also begun to harvest krill. And then there is climate change and what not. So they may starve etc and the oceans have eventually become farms?


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Re: End of Whaling in the Southern Ocean

Post by Lisbeth »

With the decision of leaving the IWC and only hunt in the Japanese national waters, they will probably kill fewer whales than they do now -O-

Talking about Krill, that is a harvest that should be forbidden. People forget about it, because many do not even know what it is, but it is a primary food source for a lot of sea animals, not only whales.


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