Existing rules and regulations can sometimes be impossible to understand without an understanding of the history of the issue. I've only followed 'whaling' as an issue for a few years and have never felt I really understood the determination of the Japanese whalers to exploit every loop hole to keep whaling, including through their 'scientific whaling programme'.
This morning I was sent a link to an article by Richard Black entitled 'Did Greens help kill the whale?' with a potted history of the environmental campaign against whaling going back to the early 1980s. Black suggests that, "the environmental movement pushed too hard; that its strident calls helped to alienate Japan at the very point where it was prepared to abandon whaling."
There is also mention of Japanese resentment that they were being blamed for bringing some whales close to extinction when the UK and USA had historically caught far greater numbers and the push by US fishermen in the late 1980s to exclude the Japanese from access to US waters.
Read the complete article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6659401.stm
Yep, who is very poorly informed? Typical tactic.
This is a genuine question David. No raps will be written about it 🙂
What do you find 'poorly informed' about it David?
Hhmmn, Kiwis talking bull$hit, noooo? It can't be. Anyone who would believe that has obviously never had a beer in a Bondi pub before a Bledisloe Cup game. Gosh, Maori wouldn't exaggerate to influence an opponent, would they? Ever seen a Hakka.
What is the proper term to describe a New Zealander in a suit? The Defendant.
How do you recognise a Kiwi when you have to meet him in a pub? He's the one flogging the hot DVDs.
Why do they call Kiwis "Hydraulics"? Because they'll lift anything. Ironically, the most conspicuous use of NZ imagery in Australian business is "ENZED Industries", they sell hydraulic hoses and fittings.
Go lightly now, eh.
Ian,
I stopped reading as soon as I hit "We, the Pacific peoples of New Zealand" the first time round, but now I look again I see there's some other eyebrow raisers in there:
"... may be the same humpbacks your whalers intend to hunt in the 2007/2008 summer months. These are the animals that feed in Area V of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, south of NZ. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) classifies these whales as the New Zealand/Tonga stock."
People protesting to the Japanese government ought to get their facts straight. Of course people dishing out propaganda prior to IWC meetings need not worry about such trivialities.
"We urge the Government of Japan to ... conduct future research on whales in a non-lethal manner."
Very poorly informed.
How unusual, the expert Ian asserting his expertise. What do you do again Ian?
How unusual, a political statement full of half truths, delusion and extrapolation masquerading as fact. The fact that it is made by Maori is the only thing distinguishing it from all the other cretinous bumf.
Or should that be 'sista'?!
Why thanx sister.