David @ Tokyo

"..Whales were protected and whales are alive..."

It's amazing how when one strips away the buffoonery and vacuous celebutantes the whales savers are little more than commercialized parallel garden variety anti-abortionists ...

As Billie Holliday said, nice work if you can get it.
 

I've always found it interesting that so many anti-whalers are also vehemently pro-choice.
My own politics aside, it seems like a major contradiction in philosophies to me -- unless they just hate the human race. Which is probably the case.
 

I have a job for Watson and the whale friends. Instead of targeting the most democratic countries in the world , they should stop Zimbabwe donating its wildlife to Norh Korea.
Now they are going to taken wild animals from parks to zoo in N. Korea , where they will live in awful conditions and soon die.

Show cojones now Watson and allies and do something, read the terrible article in Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/13/robert-mugabe-animals-north-korea
 

Ann: Zimbabwe is a land locked country and Sea Shepherd is a Marine charity.

What are you doing to protect Zimbabwe's wildlife, beyond writing posts on pro-whaling blogs.
 

Xuije,
As a matter of fact if you look up Jennifer Marohasy's blog I have had a debate with Tokyo David about Zimbabwes elephants with David... I have also published Guardian's article in my blog to inform people...
re David, I think he's a nice person, actually eating a whale is not worse , or less worse than eating a cow, the whales are happy critters...

BTW , even Greenpeace appreciated David's posts...It's true:)
 

Who are you, Xujie?

Ann - well I hope I forced them to stop saying some silly things :)
 

I have posted a comment on whaling on my blog:
http://hvalir.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/will-whaling-end/
 

Seems that no one else really wants the job, otherwise he would not be doing it..jut check out the Blue fin Tuna issue.
Japan should be given a modest whale quota, but their BS and bribery should also be seen in the harsh light of day.
 

I'm not sure if I agree with your perception, but nonetheless this situation is just the consequence of turning the whole debate into a political game, which is really the anti camp's doing if you ask me. A political strategy gets countered by another political strategy. Don't initiate it if you won't like the consequence. That's reasonable by any standard if you try to push somebody over. They fight back by default.
 

The British Sunday Times has run an expose how Japanese government is bribing countries and even hiring prostitutes to get the vote the way they want it. Disgraceful and yet you support this.

Also I notice you haven't been running your statistics for quite a while now. Why is that? The marathon ended quite a while ago. Maybe you don't like what the statistics are showing?
 

That so called "expose" is nothing of the sort and if you'd been watching long enough you'd know that the initial 1986 moratorium was passed using much the same tactics from the Cetacean Fetishists and the factory fundraisers.

The addition of the sexual angle is merely for the extra titilation and to get it some traction. After 25 years this stuff is totally formulaic and is endlessly repeated washed and recycled.
Such manufactured outrage over a non-event has been making cash for Greenpeace and co for ages. Camapigns of such outrage in a can have been a staple of the press for a century at least.

I'm reminded of Jim Hacker's take on the media:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQC45KunwA

Now let's run along and leave the world's sustainable and peaceful whale eaters alone and stop pretending that cultural bigotry makes you "compassionate".
 

So RadicalOmnivore despite their being video evidence and the Sunday Times (UK) being one of the most respected in the world you just seek to brush the bribes under the carpet. Nice.
 

Anonymous,

"Disgraceful and yet you support this."

You need not tell me what I support, thanks.

"I notice you haven't been running your statistics for quite a while now. Why is that? The marathon ended quite a while ago."

Priorities, priorities, priorities. Compiling the data and updating the graphs and uploading them every month required a fair time commitment, in the first place.

Of course I would adjust my priorities if I were sent a big enough cheque.

"Maybe you don't like what the statistics are showing?"

Actually I don't know what the statistics are showing. As of the 2010 figures, they are no longer freely available from the old source. The Ministry page now states that the Fisheries Agency is in charge of the publication of the statistics from this year, and that they should be contacted about it. Personally I've not prioritised this little hobby high enough to motivate me to ring them up (yet).

Inventory levels should peak later in the summer though, so if true to form Greenpeace or some other organized crime gang may release a PR distorting the figures / misleading the public, which would possibly serve to give me the motivation to check.
 

When it come to the whaling issue I would hardly refer to the London Times as the most respected in the world.
As in this expose the Times has had a policy of opposing whaling for some time and can be strictly relied upon to repeat the latest anti-whaling fundraising "scandals" verbatim with zero analysis or attempts to present a balanced report.

If you don't like bureaucrats being offered incentives (and there's good arguments for that) then stop needlessly vilifying peaceful people sustainably eating a different species than your own culture consumes.Then there won't be any reasons to "bribe" anyone either for or against whale eating.

Just because Greenpeace and the Sea Sheep can manipulate truth and middle class western prejudice to rake in millions doesn't make it right. It certainly doesn't make it conservation.

Whales are food too!
 

Thanks for providing the reasons for not updating your statistics David. Very interesting that the Japanese government are no longer freely releasing these details.
 

The MAFF page doesn't say they are "no longer freely releasing" the frozen marine products statistics anymore, only that the Fisheries Agency is in charge of the survey and publication of data as of this year. If you really want the figures just ring the phone number and you'll get them, I imagine. Or you can be patient and wait for me to do it.
 

I have posted one more comment on my blog:
http://hvalir.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/mc-cartney-protests-norwegian-whaling-an-futile-and-counter-productive-act/