Australia 'deeply disappointed' at start of Japanese whale hunt

Friday 20th November, 04:06 AM JST

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Zenpun at 08:32 PM JST - 20th November

Whale meat is the tastiest among all the meats. If Aussie has ever tried the Medium cooked Whale steak with Australian wine, they will think they are in the heaven. Not on the earth! Let' do a whaling together in Atlantic or South Pacific.
ca1ic0cat at 09:09 PM JST - 20th November

So what does one do when one is "deeply disappointed?" That doesn't seem to be that big a deal to me. I imagine Japan will simply get on with it.
Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land at 10:41 PM JST - 20th November

I would like to try whale meat. How is it best served?
Mookoo at 11:50 PM JST - 20th November

I'd bet dollars to donuts that 90% of the so-called whale meat lovers here have never tasted the stuff. Foul!
donkusai at 12:03 AM JST - 21st November

Never seen whale meat in any supermarket I've been in in 4 years in Japan. Had a Japanese teacher once give a demonstration of a past tense sentence as "Japanese people used to eat whale". She was shocked when I pointed out the Japanese still hunt whales. But it doesn't matter what the Japanese people think. As has already been said, this whole thing is more about greasing the palms of the right interest groups.
usaexpat at 12:56 AM JST - 21st November

Well good they'l get to film another season for the show Whale Wars. Watson should be putting people's lives at risk in no time.
bushlover at 02:23 AM JST - 21st November

Saying Australia's Navy have the right to patrol international waters and make decisions about the whaling there is like saying Japan own the Pacific Ocean. I guess you animal lovers just have your heads in the clouds or is that in the waves? SUSTAINED WHALING is the point here.
UnagiDon at 02:30 AM JST - 21st November

UnagiDon "deeply disappointed" at start of flood of moronic commentary about Japanese whale hunt on Japan Today.
sfjp330 at 03:09 AM JST - 21st November

The today's world will either be stepping forward into an era where conservation and the environment really matter, or it will be stepping back into the Dark Ages, where the people of the world think that the slaughter of whales using grenades, electric lances and shooting them with rifles is something that we should accept. If all nations in the world took 1000 whales each year, the stocks would soon be exhausted. What gives one nation, Japan the right to a larger portion of the resources of the planet that all nations hold in common?
Molenir at 03:29 AM JST - 21st November

The today's world will either be stepping forward into an era where conservation and the environment really matter, or it will be stepping back into the Dark Ages, where the people of the world think that the slaughter of whales using grenades, electric lances and shooting them with rifles is something that we should accept. If all nations in the world took 1000 whales each year, the stocks would soon be exhausted. What gives one nation, Japan the right to a larger portion of the resources of the planet that all nations hold in common?

Hmm, interesting point. Does every nation want to hunt whales? If so, obviously Japan would need to reduce the number of whales they take. Sustainability is the point here. Don't want to take too many of them and damage the viability of the species. Of course other nations didn't bother to take their quota, then obviously Japan would be fine in taking more to make up for it. So, which nation is going to step forward and start taking part in whale hunts again?
bushlover at 07:28 AM JST - 21st November

Grenades? And all along I thought it was dynamite they were using!!! Those liars!!
Miyaratmosphere at 10:11 AM JST - 24th November

I don't eat meat so I don't really care, yet I pray for the whales, the blue fin tuna and other species to go into full extinction quickly. It's time for this country to learn a lesson about respecting mother earth.
Damien15 at 05:53 PM JST - 24th November

One of these days someone is going to sink the Japanese whaling fleet--just you watch. The sooner the better.

Amen to that!!
IndyBearFan88 at 01:56 AM JST - 29th November

Japan has hunted whales for 1000s of years, it's a tradition there and taking 500 per year is not going to put a strain on the Minke whale population of 800,000 worldwide. In addition, it's bad enough to have to sail down to Antarctica to get them much less deal with harassment from eco-terrorists the whole time that accomplish nothing other than putting peoples lives at risk needlessly. I'm surprised a destroyer or frigate wasn't sent along with the fleet to prevent these pirate attacks.
hobbsy70 at 09:47 AM JST - 30th November

Japan may have hunted whales for hundreds of years,(not thousands), but back then it was done just off your coast, not in Antarctic waters, & it was done in timber boats, with hands thrown harpoons, so the whalers were at equal risk of being killed by the whales, as the whales were of the hunters. This is not the case today, whaling boats can outrun the whales, & explosive harpoons blow them apart to die an excruciating death, & slowly not quick as reported in Japanese whaling propaganda. Also back then it was done with respect to mother nature, nursing mothers & calves were NOT killed, & considered sacred, this is no longer the case, & a big part of the reason many whales are listed as endangered species. You talk of sustainable whaling, yet if you did it at a sustainable level you would still be able to hunt whales off your coast, but you have decimated the numbers there to a point you can no longer hunt in Japanese waters, so you go into a designated "whale sanctuary", & sanctuary means they are supposed to be safe there, not hunted! & use the guise of "scientific purposes"! How many whales do you need to kill to work out what they eat??? Another fact the industry is keeping from the public in Japan is that whale meat is very high in mercury, as is dolphin meat, the levels in the meat are well above Japanese health regulations. Mercury causes brain damage, & is the cause of "Minimata desease", a desease Japan should be well aware of after its breakout in Minimata in 1956, due to the pollution pumped into the waterways from the "Chisso corperation"& the towns people eating contaminated fish, just as you are doing by eating whale & dolphin meat, but many of you do not even know you are eating dolphins as it is labeled as whale meat! Whaling & the dolphin slaughters are bring MUCH shame & dishonor on Japan from the rest of the world, & is also poisoning your own population, & destroying our oceans for future generations, so it is up to the Japanese public to bring about change, or to live with the shame that it brings...