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This caught me off guard a few years back when a japanese friend asked me why we dont want the japanese to eat whales.

 

The only non-hypacritical answer I can think of is that they are endangered and as biodiversity is a good thing we shouldent kill them untill there are sufficent numbers to do so without endangering their existance.

 

The "intelligent animal" and "cruilty of the slow death" arguements dont really cut it on a national level due to animal rights violations being allowed to occour in our own countries (vivasection).

 

Another question we could ask is would you try eating whale meat if it was presented to you. The whale is already dead and the food will be wasted if you dont so it doesnt make any difference one way or the other if you decide to eat it or not. do you eat it?

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I've never eaten it and am not really tempted to, although I have nothing against it in principle.

 

If there are actually enough whales of the kind that Japanese want to hunt, the international community should accept any objective evidence to that effect and stop being obstructionist on hypocritical grounds.

 

But it also seems crazy that Japan continues to make much of an issue out of it. The Japanese have not traditionally eaten whalemeat, and it is certainly not a dietary requirement any more. (A few coastal villages have hunted whales, and the Japanese ate whalemeat for a period after the war so as not to starve. These are scarcely reasons to revive what is basically a dead industry.) Letting the whaling interests run away with Japanese foreign policy is an absurd situation. Can't they find work at 7-11 like everybody else?

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Though I've tried about every kind of fish and seafood, including shark & pals, I've never had whale, and I probably never will. Yes, I feel it's ok to base one's food selections on the animal's relative intelligence, though keep in mind pigs are quite smart. And I like pork, on occasion.

 

Several varieties of whale are not remotely endangered, and many indigenous peoples participate in ritual whale hunts and rely on whales for sustinance. So, I'd say sporadic, commercial hunting of non-endangered whales is acceptible.

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A very large % of whale meat is actually dolphin meat. By all accounts neither are particularly tasy meats (as told by the Japanese I have spoken to). As best I can tell, whale is not regarded as anything special in Japan. I have often observed it being the cheapest product on sale at a fish market.

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merryJim, if you read news items about whalemeat and Japan, they nearly always have a line about 'still available in expensive, specialist restaurants'. I think they probably all are too lazy to investigate the truth, and just recycle the same line from each other's articles. The line makes it seem as though whales are being killed to satisfy some greedy and perverse elite.

 

This isn't true however. You can find whalemeat in any downtown fishmarket, and many cheap eateries have whalemeat on sticks, and it isn't pricey at all.

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I've had it both sashimi style and cooked. It wasn't too bad though not something i'd ask for myself. The whale tongue sashimi was better than the meat in my opinion. I was surprised how red the meat is - looks just like normal steak!

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I had it coz it was on the menu when my dad came over and he wanted to try it (the rest of us hid behind the "it's already dead" argument for that night anyway). It tasted more like beef than anything else. Was pretty good but not something I'd order again. I've always been surprised at how available it is in supermarkets - any supermarkets and all over. I also can't understand the lies that are apparently told about them only being caught "for scientific experimental purposes". If they're told by the international community not to do it, then they shouldnt do it - it's not quite like telling Saddam not to have "weapons of mass destruction" (am I the only person sick of that term?) - they're being told not to eat the nice fishies (sorry - mammals) coz they'll all die and then there'll be none left for anyone to enjoy.

 

Wow! Can u tell I've had a bad day at work or what? That's the most vocal I've been on here.

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A few hundred years ago certian people ate other humans and then they realised that it wasnt acceptable to the wider population of the world. Ditto with whales. The Maori people of NZ used to eat both and eat neither anymore. I think Japan should take a leaf out of their book.

 

A while ago I got my hands on a pamphlet Japanese interestes were circulating in NZ about "how would you feel if lamb was suddenly not able to be eaten" soooo lame and totally missed the point.

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