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TechnoratiTOKYO - Japanese fishermen tussled with over 30 anti-whaling protesters in waters off the country's eastern coast this week as the activists tried to stop the killing of thousands of pilot whales.
A group of mostly Australian and American activists, some on surfboards, left flowers at sea off Taiji, a historic whaling town some 450 km (280 miles) west of Tokyo.
But the ceremony on Monday, shown in a video provided by the activists, was interrupted by a boat of local fishermen, who used a long pole to chase away the protesters. Whales could be seen swimming on the other side of the boat.
"It's innocence being slaughtered, it's innocence being taken away," said Hayden Panettiere, an actress in the U.S. TV series "Heroes," who took part in the protest.
"Dolphins and whales are probably one of the friendliest animals on the face of this planet."
On land, one of the fisherman shouted at a foreign television crew covering the protest. "Go home, you're in the way," he said.
Japan abandoned commercial whaling in accordance with an international moratorium in 1986, but conducts what it calls "scientific research" whaling every year and is pushing for the resumption of commercial whaling.
Critics say most of the whale meat ends up in Japanese supermarkets and restaurants and that Japan rarely publishes its scientific findings.
Protesters say there is no point to whaling, citing research by Taiji assemblymen this year which showed local whale meat contained levels of mercury 10 to 16 times more than advised by the Health Ministry.
"The justification is for the meat, but we now know that the meat is highly contaminated," said Ric O'Barry, an activist who trained dolphins for the U.S. TV series "Flipper" in the 1960s.
Around 2,000 whales are known to be killed in Taiji every year during the whaling season from September to March. Some 14,000 whales were caught by Japanese ships in total last year, according to Japan's Fisheries Agency.
A Fisheries Agency official said he saw no need to stop consumers from eating whale and dolphin meat. "Because whales and dolphins are at the top of the food chain in the ecological system, they tend to have higher mercury levels compared to other species," said Hideki Moronuki, a Japanese Fisheries Agency official in Tokyo.
He added that the Health Ministry has been advising pregnant woman not to eat the meat too often. "But trying to stop people from eating the meat altogether for that reason seems irrational to me," he added.
Japan argues its whaling program helps the understanding of whale stocks and species and also considers whaling a cherished cultural tradition, although studies show the public's appetite for the delicacy is declining.
© 2007 Reuters
13 Comments so far
Show AllI wish SIOUXROSE was available here, it's over my head now, time for professional help. Or maybe this other one needs it more than I.
For better or worse what you call 'our soul' is a gift from our parents or whatever else molded what we were born with before we had a chance to define reality for ourselves. After that it may be impossible for us to change, and it is certainly extremely unlikely.
After society is finished jerking us around (earn, conform, obey, work hard, etc.) any freedom most of us have left is an illusion. Maybe now and then a superman like Jesus or Socrates or Buddha is born with potential and is lucky enough to have that potential nurtured. These great souls are free and exercise their freedom. And if they don't do it quietly it always gets them killed.
Most of us are 'all too human' and man is a thing that is not yet.
NIETZSCHE, we may be jerked around with temptations, but humans also are born with a conscience, or a soul. If that isn't so, though I believe it to be so, we do have the option of developing one as we develop and age. I understand our soul is fully developed by the age of 12, but we have the ability to alter it for the good, or the bad as we age also. It is far easier to have a good soul by the age of twelve, than to have to alter it later on in life. Where are we going here BTW?
KEM PATRICK, if I had never been born I would not have to see "The evil work that is done under the sun". --Ecclesiastes
Once you are born you have to be. You can't be human without being jerked around by instincts for sex, self preservation, and competition to name only three.
Anybody who thinks herself free is a fool.
Last week we had the privelage of watching several pods of dolphin swim past our ship, the Lowes Ferry from New Jersey to Delaware. Some raced alongside and then dove under, then back up the other side and piloted us along for a mile or more. How could anyone with a decent soul kill them and not feel bad about it?
When stationed in Japan in the 60s, I had some wonderful Kobe steak dinners with friends several times. I later discovered our outstanding Kobe beef was actually whale meat. The snack treats in the movie theaters there was dried squid, sugared balls of mushy rice and a variety of crackers and dried peas. They do eat many foods we don't have on our menus. The evening street vendors who offered wonderful smelling Mongolian Bar-B-Q, cooked dog, cat, mice and rat meat and who knew what else. No beavers were availabe at their stands, but that fuzzy was availabel in the night clubs and bars. __Yum yum.
I agree that this planet is overpopulated with humans, but only because we humans have not learned how to live in a sane and clean manner with the planet, like many of our American Indians did for thousands of years, for one example.
I wonder, PERCEPTIONEXPERIMENT, have you ever thought where you'd be, if your dad had tossed your egg into the garbage, tightly wrappped in a rubber sack?
We need a global initiative to stop the over harvesting of the oceans. Maybe we could convince Japan that if they chill the fuck out on the whales, and we agree to chill the fuck out on the shrimp trawling and tuna, and allow time for the ocean to replenish itself, maybe they'll be able to hunt a few whales in the future... as opposed to there not being any whales left.
But that said, I am so sick of all the media attention and time focused on saving the "beautiful" and "intelligent" species. Fucking animal rights activists only seem to care about something if it's cute or mammalian. How many of them kill every bug that invades their house? I let 'em outside if possible.
No one ever yells save the snails! Nearly every species on this earth is in decline and it's going to take more than just telling people not to eat certain kinds of meat or surfers putting flowers in the ocean to change that.
It's going to take a fundamental rethink of this thing we call civilization, and our notions that human beings are the end all be all of creation.
It's also going to take some voluntary population control on our part. Hey you fucking hippies that think birth control is "unnatural" (whatever that means). Stop having kids and learn about abortion! What's better the death of most of the planets biodiversity or your precious fetus?
If they start putting tie-die on condoms will you use them then? Heard of adoption or foster parenting if you like kids?
Besides, bringing a kid into this fucking shitstorm of a world is child abuse at its worse. STOP HAVING KIDS!
Porcupine, this may burst your bubble, but Buddhist monks often make the news in Japan for getting busted in sex scandals. The most right-wing party in Japan is Buddhist affiliated (soka gakkai). Now, with ordinary Japanese consumer rights groups, you might get somewhere.
Mmmmmm... I sure do like my veal, and cow, and bacon, pheasant, ostrich, bear, vennison, turkey, chicken, quail, pigeon, dog, frog and every other animal on noahs ark. hehehe, call me evil, but they sure do taste good. I feel bad for whales but the japenese seem to be making some progress. We should not get involved and interfere with and economy at work. Pilot whales are porpuses too along with dolphins
While I agree there is hypocrisy for meat eaters to condemn Japan, especially when cows and pigs are also intelligent and friendly, the fact is Japan ALSO eats pigs and cows-so they arent "off the hook" either. They eat everything.
There is such a thing as greed.
And their irrational disinterest in extinction also makes no sense.
I have read that there are Japanese ministers that have protested the whale meat and most Japanese are against it--but its like hunting in North America, a minority does it, most are against it(despite eating meat) but they have a disproportionate amount of clout.
But I dont know if Japan is the worst offender. I thought China was the country that has absolutely no food taboos and will eat anything with four legs except a table...as well as bird nest soup, manure, saliva.
It just shows how contemptible humanity is--that as it whines about climate change it continues to behave in ways that even a retarded cockroach wouldnt.
Watched "gross food" on tv. I don't think Japan allows eating dogs any more, but just about everything else that moves, crawls, swims, or has been alive at one time. That might be a good thing for survivalism's sake. If cooked correctly, some are said to taste good and not much different than eating cow, sheep, pig, chicken or turkey muscle. However, with near seven billion people on the planet eating and crapping like a horde of locusts, we have to begin thinking about things like species extinctions and its impact on future generations.
While whaling is for sure horrible, it can be seen as arrogant for the US to raise so much fuss about it while we exploit and slaughter over 10 billion land animals for food (not to mention an estimated 15 billion aquatic animals) each year! Every American is responsible for about 80 animals just for food...Get the real deal, http://www.meat.org
Japanese Buddhists where are you? Stop the slaughter of sentient beings. Have you no sway? Have you nothing to say? Do no harm. And Buddhists world wide should consider whether Japan—which can't even stop the slaughter of endangered whales—is really a worthy spiritual center, a place one would go to study strict and proper "form" in rinzai or soto sects.