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David @ Tokyo

Perspective from Japan on whaling and whale meat, a spot of gourmet news, and monthly updates of whale meat stockpile statistics

1/06/2010

 

Tokyo Marathon 2010 update

Just a quick update... back from New Year's holiday. (Happy New Year!)

Ran something like 27-30 kms a couple of weekends back, and a total of about 70 kms in one week.

This weekend aiming for 29 kms, 32 kms a fortnight later, and 35 kms another fortnight after that.

Totalling around 60 - 70 kms each week, time permitting.

And 42.125 kms on February 28.

So this leaves not much time for other stuff. Apologies if you are looking for whale meat inventory stats, but I'll update these for certain from March, or maybe earlier if I find the time before that. They haven't been too flash though, with the economic gloom. Tuna inventory is also reportedly building up in recent times (MSN Sankei), despite new restrictions on quotas.

But - details of that in future, I'm off for some training now.

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Comments:
peeeuuwww. Stinks of whale meat in here. Lemme get this right, you get an average of - what - five comments on your industry newsletter...sorry, "blog", and around 20 per cent of those are calling you a dick. Are you spotting a theme here, Tokyo David? Rest of the world vs well paid but essentially insignficant gaijin trying to get the rest of us to take a little bite of deep fried whale blubber...not working is it?
 
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 
mark, kjell,

Your sandpit is here:
http://www.seashepherd.com.au/
 
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 
I cannot see why you are pushing this issue. I've read your posts elsewhere about standing up for those who are being pushed around. But as far as I can see most Japanese are either neutral or against whaling. The industry is heavily subsidised and is also masquerading as ' research : when it patently isn't the case. I note that you don't comment about the fact that the Japanese have now fished out their own waters to such an extent that they are infested with giant jellyfish . this is the result of overfishing ! the fish that used to eat the jellyfish spores are not there to remove them . Japan and the rest of the worlds whalers drove the whale to the edge of extinction before we fought to get the barbaric ( and unnecessary )practice stopped . You also seem to overlook the fact that the japanese also want to hunt endangered whale species such as the humpback. there are also issues about whaling, such as the time that whales take to die, that raise questions about your lack of feeling for your fellow creatures. You would be far better off trying to push the restoration of the fish species in your own local waters rather than supporting the exploitation of whales in a sanctuary 1000's of ks away from Japan. we all know that given the chance whaling nations would hunt them all to the edge of extinction yet again -- and THATS why so many people are against the practice. Greed over good as usual- and unfortunately greed usually wins. Well. perhaps not this time .....
 
Unfortunately,sharkle you make it clear in your first breath that you have in fact, NOT read much of the posts in this blog or you would detect flaws in your bullshittery.

You can always tell the folks who have been swallowing the kool-aid at the Sea-Sheep site: they always blather about "greed".
 
sharkle,

I don't have the impression that "most Japanese are either neutral or against whaling".

The "industry" is subsidised because if it were standing on it's own two feet it would be commercial whaling.

You may not understand the purpose of the research. This does not mean that research is not being conducted. Do not assign problems with your own understanding to others.

Japan's fisheries besides whaling are a mess, generally. But their sustainable whaling policy, shared with Iceland and Norway, is spot on, and the way that all fisheries should be managed. Indeed if other fisheries had the same principles applied that apply for modern day whaling, many would be shut down immediately and those that weren't would be sustainable.

Not all species of whales were over-exploited. If you had read my previous comments you'd find one about the pointlessness of the moratorium on Antarctic minke whales. Scientific advice at the time was that a moratorium was not needed, but the politicians decided to impose one anyway. This is but one of a number of instances of the IWC ignoring scientific advice over the years.

The humpback whale is not an endangered species these days, and in any case the number that Japan is talking about hunting (for research purposes) is a mere 50 per annum. If you had read my previous comments you'd know that humpback numbers are "booming", according to Australian scientists. Fin whale numbers too have recovered to levels that makes a research quota of 50 seem reasonable enough to me. Of course if the anti-whaling nations were genuinely concerned they might offer something to Japan in return for forgoing these catches, but instead they offer empty rhetoric.

Indeed there are animal welfare aspects to whaling. Japan and Norway have constantly made efforts over the past few decades to improve their killing methods. The improvements have been quite significant, and today they are certainly killing them in a much more efficient manner than the Aussies and Kiwis were still partaking in whaling themselves.

If "given the chance whaling nations would hunt them all to the edge of extinction yet again" were a true statement then Norway and Iceland which are exempt from the IWC's moratorium would have already completed the task. That they haven't is evidence that you are just talking emotional nonsense.

Catching whales and turning them into food is not about "greed".

As I suggested to mark and kjell, there is an appropriate sandpit for you to play in elsewhere.

regards.
 
IceClass,

How come all these anti-whaling folks are trying to distract me from my marathon training :)
 
"Indeed if other fisheries had the same principles applied that apply for modern day whaling, many would be shut down immediately and those that weren't would be sustainable."


Bingo!
Ever notice how the biggest campaigns and money earners for the protest industry are always made against some of the best and most responsibly & sustainably managed resources?

Everything that's circling the boil they pay lip service to.

The Animal Protest Industry is white noise in the conservation debate and needs to be tuned out.
 
Keep pounding the pavements, not long to go to the TM now!
 
Thanks... have been busy with other non-marathon things recently and haven't been keeping up with my running schedule so well. And now may have picked up a bit of an injury, but hopefully we'll be OK.
 
Just coming back out of curiousity.
One of my anti -whaling friends said " I'm not totally against whaling , but only that whales are slaughtered nedlessly".

Well, I'm a vegetarian , but I have cow friends and can't see why the Donalds are accepted and nor the minke beef.

Indeed the whaling is right now conducted quite responsibly, more or less , and Iceland and Norway are rated as the most rsponsible fisheries in the world.

I'm fed up with most NGOs btw. In Sweden , Djurens Rätts/ Animal Rights spokeswoman wrote in her blog: " My uncle was a small town fisherman. One day he saw the beaty in the fish and released all fish in the net. NOW HE IS ONLY BYING FROZEN FISH FROM THE SUPERMARKET". !!!!! They are such clowns, liers , moneymakers etc. I really am sorry for the animals to have such spokesmen( indeed there are good hearted followers who pay the cheaters salary, I pity the animals!
Then I found out that they also pirate copied Microsofts videos, and look what they wrote on Twitter.

They have no idea what " extinct" means!


Animals H.O.P.E Good morning from Diani Beach, Kenya! The whale shark season is here now and 2 whale sharks were caught by local fishermen in Watamu a couple of days ago. The whale shark is extinct but it's not illegal to catch them and the fishermen make a lot of money so they will just keep doing it. We've got to try and illegalize ...Visa mer
ons kl. 22:40

Idiots , once again poor , poor animals with such leaders.
 
Hello again,
BTW, did any of you read Hardy Jones analyzis on whaling protests. He is the campaigner for Blue Voice.

He said re Faroese whaling, that every time when the international cry for stop grinda slaughter started the more resotut the Faoeses were to NOT STOP whaling.

He said as well , after 30 years of protests against Japanese whaling, NOTHING has happened.

I will post the link later!
 
My little blog:

http://whalebird.bloggles.info/
 
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To those who say this site & David are pointless, I disagree. To those of us who don't have a particular stance on it, or rather, more interested in getting the big picture, this place fills the crucial void which has existed in the west for years. There has been many realizations for me, in terms of seeing myself and country from another perspective.

I've come to understand over the years that there are different schools of thought on the relationship between men and food. In the UK, where I am based, the most common perception is that of dualism where men and nature are 2 separate entity. This way of thinking lead us to the idea of killing animals "without pain", thus justifying killing innocent animals.

The east tends to be based more on the theory of oneness, where the nature and men are inherently one entity. It appears to be much more common to opine that killing for food is OK as a part of nature. Wasting food seems to cause more philosophical problems for them, as it would imply killing animals for no good use. This aspect is not really challenged in the UK. Although, it has to be said, the developed countries share similar problems anyhow. There is nevertheless a fundamental difference in the common philosophy.

Anti-whaling is ultimately about not killing whales for food, regardless of why it should be so, though this 'why' is where everybody seems to get bogged down with. All the technical details overlooks the more fundamental debate on why it is right to kill at all, a whale or pig. In this regard, the eastern philosophy is much more natural and 'comfortable' with the idea, while us in the west have a greater moral paradox in the conflict between our ideology and practice of breeding and taking so many lives.

I myself have gone through this phase in this journey. I've always been a meat eater, but now I'm comfortable with myself, without guilt, complex or ignorance.

Over the years I've engaged in a dialogue with many friends and strangers in this country and gotten a distinctly positive feedback on this matter including whaling. This site has been helpful, but more importantly it has lead me to the journey which made me realize that righteousness is neither absolute nor monopolized by one nation.

In a sense, strangely enough the whaling debate is less important for me. Rather, it has been a catalyst. It is the multitude of philosophy and mindset which make up our world, without evil or ill-intent, that is the greatest treasure I've gotten out of this journey.

I think it's a shame that this debate has degenerated into a propaganda of a sort. The crux of it is that the whaling debate is a small part of a much bigger debate on taking innocent life for food, which every country practices. Through the whaling debate, we can gain a much greater understanding of our own paradoxes in our habits and food culture, and consequently understand that the world is not so black-and-white as the anti-whaling campaigners make it out to be. I'm comforted to know that even over here in the UK, in private at least, the majority of us indifferent folk have the capacity to understand our own prejudices on this matter. That has been my own observation here.

So all I can say to David is, keep going. You might get a lot of flak on the way from the vocal activists, but the more perceptive of the 'normal' folk like me are quietly watching too and feel that you're filling a very important gap in the debate.
 
Yep, we'll keep going. Once the marathon is over I'll have more time once again.

Someone else once told me that they support what I do with my blog from the perspective that they see a lack of balance in the western media. Obviously one can never counterbalance it with just a single blog, but then I think there are lots of people out there that see through all the nonsense and understand what this problem is about at it's core.
 
Well, your blog has been around long enough for it to get marked up by search engines, and personally I think your ability to articulate well has been instrumental, at least for me and those I've talked to.

And it's not just a matter of "counter-balancing" the argument either. It is also a catalyst to realizing that it's a much more honest view of the relationship between the man and nature in the west. I'm convinced that the perception taught by the Anglo-Saxon relations (dualist view, as I mentioned earlier), which later propagated to the rest of the west, is an unintended dishonesty.

But we somehow manage to live with it. How do we manage that? At least in the UK, the trick is in the social-engineering. Without it, we would be in a moral turmoil while eating bacon sandwich and Christmas meals. This is the consequence of the illusion called the dualism. It is an illusion because the nature and man were never dualized - we've always been one and the same. The fundamental philosophical framework, upon which the morality of food is based in this country, is incorrect, in my opinion.

That's why we need a lot of technical fudge to justify our own meat eating habits. Over time, that somehow became our moral high-ground. Or rather, an illusion of moral high-ground on our part. How ridiculous can we get?

There is a relationship between the regions which have this social-engineering and most active animal-rights movement (NOT conservation, mind). This is no coincidence in my eyes.

A certain "mode of thinking" leads to the simplistic misconception of empathy and compassion, which in turn gives birth to the concept of animal-rights activism. The anti-whaling movement seems to be the most magnified manifestation of this social phenomena, but because it's so magnified, it also highlights clearly the fundamental flaw in the philosophy of dualism.

But it's easy to slip into it if you are raised here as you take these views for granted without really thinking deeply about our own food culture. I was like that too, throughout my childhood. It was only in my mid 20s that I began to really question the philosophy behind food, thanks to the issue on whaling. It eventually lead me to look into the philosophy behind the concept of morality, which in turn lead me to the discovery of the Oneness vs Dualism ideology.

For most others, it usually leads to veganism or turning a blind eye.

The point I'm trying to make is that there is a strong rationale and philosophy behind the perception on the sustainable-use, and plenty of people understand it given the opportunity. That's the buzz word: opportunity. It just barely exists in the English speaking world because only the simplistic tag-lines and sound-bites are being used, almost as though we're criticizing whaling in order to forget about our own practice of slaughtering millions.

Anyway. Sorry for writing so much, but it's a hard concept to explain.
 
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