Why don't we exploit whales commercially?

[Boerseun]

Yes - I know this is a touchy subject. But, if we start exploiting whales commercially, we:

 

a) Ensure their survival! Contradictory as it may seem, if we put a monetary value on a whale's head, we will make it necessary for those harvesting them to ensure their scientific, sustainable exploitation - and even to farm them in such a way as to increase their numbers. In the olden days they were hunted to the brink of extinction, but that was due to the indiscriminate slaughter of all available whales. A case in point - we have been slaughtering cattle for thousands of years, and they still outnumber deer by several orders of magnitude!

;) Consume a resource as close to the base of the marine food chain as possible. Sure - we can start eating plankton, but it tastes like crap. If we have whales converting crappy-tasting planton into yummy-tasting meat, we still consume solar energy with a minimum energy loss through the chain, seeing as this specific chain will have only one link.

c) Okay - a whale might take 5 to 10 years to mature, whereas a cow will be ready for slaughter in approximately 2 years. But - if a whale takes 10 years, and a cow 2, the whale need to be only 5 times more massive than the cow to make it worthwhile. A whale is considerably larger than that, so this should be viable.

d) Cattle, sheep and all other commercially exploited stock is dependent on large fields committed to lucerne and other feedstuffs - which is artificially fertilised with chemicals that is dangerous and harmful to the environment. Baleen whales, on the other hand, consume plankton which is the biggest concentration of nutrient mass on the planet. So, in consuming whales and farming them scientifically and sustainably, we will have less of an impact on the ecosystem.

e) I am not proposing slaughtering whales indiscriminately, like in the old days. That will lead to extinction. Rather, each farmer must start up a pod and mark them with some sort of radio transmitter or microchip. He is responsible for their welfare, and is only allowed to kill those whales bearing his "farm"s chip. Obviously there will be cases of "stock theft", cattle farmers all over the world suffer it as well. That can be treated on a technical, legal way. But the principle of whale farming should be investigated further, I think.

[ThatWierdGuy]

I don't condone killing intellegent animals, except maybe pigs, but they taste good.

 

Also, I think there maybe a problem holding the 2nd or 3rd smartest animal (humans being the first) in captivity. I'm sure they'll notice that they are being bred for slaughter, particularily when "jimmy-whale" is taken captive and never comes back, and will probably take violent action. And holding a giant animal like a whale down will take a lot of man-power, and probably a lot of money spent to ensure its possible, unless of course you want to kill it before its ready for slaughter, which would be a waste of money. Of course this could be fixed by upping the dollars on reinforced captivity and security, but this will up the price of whale more then it needs to be.

[GAHD]

Hmm, I don't know, does whale meat taste good? If if doesn't tateste good, no on e will buy it.

[C1ay]

Putting a value on the hides of other animals has nearly driven them to extinction in the black markets.

[Boerseun]

That's the thing. As long as we ban the whale trade, countries like Japan and Norway will keep on harvesting it, like they've been doing for many years, without any statutory body controlling them. I can only assume that the meat tastes good, judging by the Japanese and Norwegian activities in this regard. Now, on the other hand, if we can make it legal, we can regulate it - and that should be better for the whales in the long run?

[C1ay]

That's the thing. As long as we ban the whale trade, countries like Japan and Norway will keep on harvesting it, like they've been doing for many years, without any statutory body controlling them. I can only assume that the meat tastes good, judging by the Japanese and Norwegian activities in this regard. Now, on the other hand, if we can make it legal, we can regulate it - and that should be better for the whales in the long run?

I think they harvest whales more for the oils than the meat. As for regulation it's just a dream. Look at how well nuclear regulation is working in North Korea right now.

[Boerseun]

Point taken - although if all countries are signatories to some whale treaty, and one of them breaks it (re. your North Korea analogy), that country would make itself a target for several economic sanctions and boycotts.

Yeah - I'm idealistic.

Bad idea, probably, but I think we should investigate further, not just say "No, we can't kill the poor whales! They're so darn cute!"

[Tormod]

Hmm, I don't know, does whale meat taste good? If if doesn't tateste good, no on e will buy it.

 

It doesn't taste good. Yet a lot of people buy it.

[Tormod]

I think they harvest whales more for the oils than the meat. As for regulation it's just a dream. Look at how well nuclear regulation is working in North Korea right now.

 

I think the Norwegian government these days harvest whales for no other reason that keeping up a claim that we can do it in our own waters as much as we like. The say it is for "scientific" use, which is utter bollocks in my opinion.

 

BTW, I have a picture of myself in front of the White House wearing a "Kill a whale" T-shirt. ;)

[Queso]

 

BTW, I have a picture of myself in front of the White House wearing a "Kill a whale" T-shirt. ;)

 

hahaha that is CLASSIC! WHERE IS IT??? let's see it!

[Fishteacher73]

c) Okay - a whale might take 5 to 10 years to mature, whereas a cow will be ready for slaughter in approximately 2 years. But - if a whale takes 10 years, and a cow 2, the whale need to be only 5 times more massive than the cow to make it worthwhile. A whale is considerably larger than that, so this should be viable.

Whales also have a longer gestation period than cows and a lower birth rate.

[Boerseun]

Whales also have a longer gestation period than cows and a lower birth rate.

Granted, but if you take an average whale's weight (say for instance 20 tons) and divide that by an average cow's weight (say 500kg's) it means that the gestation and birth rate needs to be 40 times slower before they're on an even par...

[Boerseun]

hahaha that is CLASSIC! WHERE IS IT??? let's see it!

 

Yeah!!! Where's the T-shirt, dude?

[Tormod]

Yeah!!! Where's the T-shirt, dude?

 

I'll try to dig up the photo but I have no scanner (it's broken). Will try to scan it at work! It's really a one-of-a-kind. ;)

[Buffy]

Whales were hunted to extinction in the 18th and 19th century when they were the number one source of oil for *lamps* of all things. What a waste! There are international treaties that put limits on whaling that Norway and Japan have insisted upon having rights to, as Tormod says, simply so they can say they have rights. They are signatories to the treaty and they do keep within their allocated limits, but no one else hunts whales because, well, why bother? The meat is totally sucky. Inuits (Eskimos to the hoi polloi) have indiginous peoples rights under these international treaties as well. But nonetheless, even with these limits, whale populations have barely recovered from the pre-whaling frenzy of two centuries ago. There are many species that did not make it.

 

Now we are seeing complete fishing out of major common species such as cod and tuna. In addition, pollution is killing off coastal habitats, and we're all being warned to limit our intake of salmon because of high mercury content. The Japanese think shark fins are wonderful (I think its mostly cuz they think its some sort of aphrodesiac), but I've had it and its sucky too.

 

Its not a pretty picture.

 

Now I have to say, I don't really understand what you want to exploit the poor whales for. I personally think they're actually smarter than humans--for lack of an opposable digit, they have not created skyscrapers or sent whales to the moon, but so what? But the concept of "making them valuable so people will ensure sustainable populations" is pretty absurd. On one end of the argument, this sounds just like "we have to destroy the village in order to save it" but really, anything that becomes a valuable commodity is hunted to extinction, and what has happened to cod, tuna, lobsters and other much more desireable species that live in international waters where enforcement of toothless treaties is downright scary. Wild salmon is now so scarce it costs almost twice as much as farmed salmon, and when you read about what they have to do with farmed salmon to even make it edible--pump them with antibiotics because they live in cramped putrid conditions, and then *dye* them red because they are all an unnatural, ghostly white color--it makes you not want to touch the stuff.

 

Well, at least they're not as cute as harp seals, so you may have a chance to slaughter some unmolested by the tree-huggers....

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[zadojla]

BTW, I have a picture of myself in front of the White House wearing a "Kill a whale" T-shirt. ;)

Not bad! There used to be bumper stickers that said, "Kill a Gay Commie Whale for Christ!"

[karlfreak]

i think hunting whale like that does have some advanteges and some disadvanteges but i was just wondering if the whale takes so long to give birth would it not be easier to start cloninig them and killing the cloned ones?