Australian gov't announces plan to shadow Japanese whalers

You might want to check the Institute of Cetacean Research homepage yourself, they have a list somewhere of studies they do. I came across a really good article last year that at this time based on ICR research. Do a google search and you can find the information you are looking for pretty quick.

I know one thing they are studying is the survivability of frozen sperm but I think they have to kill the whale to harvest the sperm.

 

???!
And then do they have to kill the female in order to impregnate her?

 

International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling? Wow, that is a good slight of hand. One organization is established to help regulate whaling and the other is to promote Japanese whaling interests! The Institute of Cetacean Research website reads like a political manifesto. If they weren't so politically motivated it would be easier to take them seriously.
They make a really interesting claim in one of the articles on the relationship between Blue whales and Minke whales. Blue whales, having been hunted to the point of extinction, are apparently having a difficult time competing with Minke whales for food. The answer? Kill more Minke whales to give the Blue whales a chance... This organization seems less interested in protecting the future of whales and more interested in looking for reasons to justify increasing annual hunt quotas. These guys seem to be the Japanese version of the Sea Shepherd clowns.
If these are the findings of extensive Japanese research then I have to agree with the
Environment Minister Peter Garrett calling scientific whaling a "sham'

 

As some people seem unaware why the Australian government would be interested in sending surveillance ships to the Southern Ocean, here is a report by members of the IWC scientific committee on the flaws of Japans whale research program.

http://precedings.nature.com/documents/ 1313/version/1/files/npre20071313-1.pdf

The report concludes:

"The IWC has been presented with yet more lethal studies that have little relevance to identified key research objectives, and which could threaten humpback whales from depleted populations that mix on the Antarctic feeding grounds with animals from larger stocks. Given that the GoJ remains impervious to any influence from the broader scientific community, it is time to acknowledge that the debate about research whaling has little or nothing to do with science. Indeed, by insisting that this form of whaling is scientifically valid, Japan forces the SC to remain dead-locked, ultimately to the detriment of the IWC’s credibility and function."

 

Why so many people are against killing a few whales when so many other species are hunted and killed. Where is your proof that they are 'becoming extinct'? You purely go on emotion. Animals and plants are put on earth to provide food for each other. If whales are down then fish are up. whales up fish down. cycles in populations. We seem to have recovered from what you ancestors almost caused. depletion of whale populations. Now we can hunt them in a controlled way. It's pathetic that people use the pity trip to get their point across. Go save the salmon. hypocrites abound.

 

Proxy,

I can see a few a few documents, but they aren't published, peer-reviewed papers, and as such they are pretty much worthless.

Peer-review is the basis of scientific research, and without peer-reviewed journal papers, it's hard to claim that any science is really going on.

 

your logic is lacking in that in population fluctuations humans shouldn't be a factor. The whole argument that killing whales preserves fish stocks is often used as a reason to justify the dolphin hunts in Taiji. The whole balance was upset when humans got into factory ships and hunted fish to critically low levels. re the emotion factor have you eaten a dog lately? why not? its just an animal.

 

Do you work for the Institute of Cetacean Research? They employ the same logic. Blue whales compete with Minke whales for food, blue whale populations are down because of over-hunting, making it harder for them to compete for a food source. Solution: kill more Minke whales to make it easier for blue whales to access a food source. Then when Minke whale populations are lowered the only way to save them from having to compete for food with a rival is.... kill more of their rivals! And on and on we go. Eventually, we wont need to worry about whale populations competing for the same food source because they'll all be dead. WOW, what incredible reasoning!



Do you really think Japan is the only country interested in killing whales? If every pro-whaling country (and I'm not talking about only Iceland, Norway and Japan I'm talking about all the countries in the IWC that are in favour of a return to commercial whaling) fluanted the rules of the IWC the way that Japan does we wouldn't be talking about just 'a few whales' we'd be talking about thousands and thousands of whales.

 

As usual, your response to my question of yesterday was very disingenuous.
Japan, as you noted, as provided DATA. Data on the number and type of whales it has killed, where killed, size, etc.
So what.
How does that constitute "scientific research"?
Making a perfunctory report on how and where you slaughtered these whales does not provide justification for continuing it.
Nice try though.

 

thundercat,



Because everyone knows that overexploiting whales will drive them to extinction, Japan doesn't have THAT ravenous a demand for whale meat, and while people do want to eat whales, sustainable exploitation is the only way to go about it. Japan's policy makers are not so stupid, you ought give them more credit.

Participation in JARPN II by foreign scientists was welcomed, for scientists meeting qualifications specified by the GoJ. See page 20.
http://www.icrwhale.org/eng/SC57O1.pdf
If they were better at PR they might have opened a place up for a foreign official or journalist or something too.

The problem Japan has with it's activities is that once it's location is known, dangerous environmental activists track them down and attempt to obstruct their legal business. There is no reason for Japan to invite this, but obviously they will wish to avoid it, if you take a look at what happened in the last two years with Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd.

The ICR's function is to conduct research that will enable sustainable utilisation of whale resources. I personally don't believe minke whales are inhibiting blue whale's recovery actually, but the fact is humans screwed up the balance in the Antarctic, it's common sense that humans may be able to take action to help reverse the situation back again.

jerseyboy,

The data provided is used by Japanese scientists as well, of course they can't get results published in western journals. What the data illustrates is that it serves a useful purpose to not only Japanese scientists but also non-Japanese scientists as well. The IWC Scientific Committee has repeatedly stated in it's annual report that catch-at-age analyses such as those conducted by the foreign scientists using Japan's data were important to help interpret abundance estimate data. But why do I bother, you have your opinion, no amount of information is going to change it.

 

Coming from you, that's rich.


That's right, the very important data showed that minke whales might well be immortal.

 

you wrote:


So if the international moratorium were to be lifted, as Japan desires, than Japan would be the only country to resume commercial whaling? I have never said that Japan alone would be responsible for the extinction of whales. How could anyone assure that other countries would be so concerned with the sustainability of whale populations? Most people are interested in the quick buck without much thought to the future.

The link that you provided is interesting. I would like to know what the qualifications for joining scientific research for foreign scientists actually is. Do you have a link for that? I have my suspicions that the qualifications would exclude more than the majority of interested applicants.

 

The data provided is used by Japanese scientists as well, of course they can't get results published in western journals. What the data illustrates is that it serves a useful purpose to not only Japanese scientists but also non-Japanese scientists as well.

Not published in juried western journals?
Well how about southern journals?
Northern journals?
Eastern journals other than Japanese ones?

Or are they all out to get poor li'l Japan?

 

The Rudd government needs to be looking ahead to a situation where momentum against whaling has reached a point where Japan will be willing to halt it. A lot will transpire in the next few weeks with regards to what happens between the Ocean Viking and the Japanese whaling fleet, but assuming it plays out to Australia's advantage, Rudd et al need to be considering how they can give Japan an option that saves face.

 

The lack of publication really shows that the "science" is a sham.

Real science establishes a research goal, then works out what data is required to satisfy that goal, collects the data, analyses it, then reaches a conclusion. The results are then published in a peer-reviewed paper.

If the research is over a longer time span, a series of milestones are established. The cycle of data collection, analysis and publication then happens many times during the life of the research.

Data collection without an established goal and/or without peer reviewed publications is worthless. When animals or humans are involved, it is irresponsible.