Mike O'Brien's past comments

  • 1

    Mike O'Brien

    Yeah, right. Funny how the whaling company is financed through national taxes.

    Yeah exactly right. Governments use tax money to buy all sorts of goods and services from private companies and it doesn't make the companies part of the government. Nothing funny about it.

    and these two methodologies were combined to produce a robust estimate of the number of bowhead whales passing Barrow.

    Hmmm..so they know how many whales passed a choke point in a well defined migration route. A situation that doesn't exist with Antarctic Minke whales. Did Australia use acoustic monitoring in their study of them? Did the IWC use acoustic monitoring in their study of them? Might there be a reason that even the anti-whaling non-lethal researchers didn't use acoustic monitoring.

    Posted in: Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

  • -1

    Mike O'Brien

    The Japanese government and the whaling company are two separate entities.

    The research isn't merely counting, there are many other issues being studied. But even if 'counting' was the only topic. it isn't as simple as you seem to think. Just the number isn't enough, the age distribution is important and to tell the age of a Minke whale you remove a plug from the ear by cutting into the skull. Hard to do without killing the whale, although Japan is working on a non-lethal method based on telomeres. Then the male/female ratio is also needed and from above there is no way to differentiate male and female whales.

    The facts clearly show that millions of people voluntarily eat whale meat. The issue of school children's lunches is a red herring.

    Posted in: Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

  • 0

    Mike O'Brien

    You realize the ICR and the Japanese government are two different things don't you deary?

    Do you have a copy of the permit Japan writes for itself, or are you just guessing at what it might require?

    It is available online. I would expect someone who is so concerned would have found and read it themselves.

    When they kill three times more females than males?

    Yes. Maybe you should take a basic biology course. Mammalian females are only fertile at specific times and at those times they only have a small number of eggs (only one in many cases) capable of fertilization, while mammalian males typically have millions of viable sperm at any given time.

    Posted in: Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

  • 0

    Mike O'Brien

    so drop it. You don't have to kill a whale to count it.

    Drop what? And I never said you have to kill a whale to count it, so drop the strawman.

    How many of that number of children forced to eat it in school lunches, just out of curiosity?

    Zero. The 12% was from a poll of adults. Better luck next time.

    Why do you guys always ignore that fact?

    I am not ignoring it. Why do you guys always bring in the strawmen?

    Posted in: Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

  • -1

    Mike O'Brien

    Mike O'Brian when he says international regulations REQUIRE the meat to be sold. In capitals, no less. There are no regulations international or otherwise that require the meat to be sold.

    Try using a small amount of logic cleo.

    Their permit REQUIRES they sell the meat to recoup some of the research costs. And Article VIII REQUIRES them to dispose of the processed material as directed by their permit. So using a minimal amount of logic, not selling the meat would violate Article VIII.

    No, it states that the whales must be processed.

    No, it states that the so far as practicable it must be processed.

    Like injecting whale sperm into cow ova, implanting minke cells into pig and cow cells, and growing test-tube whales?

    Yes. It is a common method to study the viability of sperm. And cow and pig ova are used because large numbers of whale ova aren't available.

    Posted in: Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

  • 1

    Mike O'Brien

    So these people are all scientists? Isn't that what the whaling is for?

    How silly are you?

    Just as one example, do the people who maintain the research ship have to be scientists? Do you need a PhD to operate a marine diesel engine or tie a rope? Do research scientists need to eat and does it take a scientist to prepare food for a researcher?

    Posted in: Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

  • 2

    Mike O'Brien

    smithinjapan

    overchan: "10 million japanese consumed Whale meat."

    As usual no stats?

    The number comes from your fellow anti-whaler zichi, who stated that a poll showed 12% of the Japanese population eat whale. From that it is simple to find the population of Japan and multiply by 0.12 and you get a number of about 15 million. Or should we not believe anything you anti-whalers claim?

    Posted in: Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

  • 2

    Mike O'Brien

    On a recent poll posted here on JT only 12% of those polled said they had bought or eaten whale meat in the last year. Not as popular it once was,especially with younger people

    And 12% of the population of Japan is about 15,000,000 people. Sounds like plenty of people to me, which is what was claimed.

    Posted in: Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

  • 3

    Mike O'Brien

    No mention of selling at all. If the government issued directions that the whale meat should be distributed free as charity at soup kitchens or processed into fertiliser or sent as ODA to North Korea, then that would be perfectly within the bounds of the international regulations.

    Yes, but the government issued directions that it be sold to offset the cost of research, which is perfectly within the bounds of the international regulations. And thus to not sell it would be a violation of their permit and thus a violation of the international regulations now wouldn't it?

    Posted in: Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

  • 3

    Mike O'Brien

    "although the meat is later sold openly in shops and restaurants."

    Because the international regulations REQUIRE the meat to be sold.

    Posted in: Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

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