Ths week the IWC (International Whaling Commission) is holding their world wide conferance in Anchorage Alaska. Green Peace has a broadcast center set-up in a tent, but there are very few people speaking out against killing whales. In an interview on the TV news last night, a woman representitive from Green Peace went as far as to say that they SUPPORT Alaskans right to hunt whales. No, I'm not kidding. She said that Green Peace is only against commercial hunting of whales.(Check for yourself at the local news link: <http://www.ktva.com/topstory/ci_5988544> The local people here are mostly for whale hunting, and the fur shop owners interviewed on the news say that no one against whale hunting would dare to speak-out here. They feel that the local people here are for hunting whales and support the fur trade. Alaska is just too far away for "those hippies" to travel for a protest. What do you think? Should whales be hunted by anyone? Is Alaska far-away and safe from any protesters. Is anyone coming here to stand-up against whale hunting? Or is everyone just going to sit at home and say, "Wow, bummer, o'well it's too far away." I'll be out photographing the events. Will I see you there?
So your going to Point Hope or Point Barrow ? Those are the only villages I know of that still "harvest" whales, about 2 a year if their lucky. Much unlike our good friends from Japan, who on 1 whaling ship can kill and process 20 whales a day, 7 days a week. And who by the way dont give a shit what the IWC says. What do the fur shop owners have to say about whales, seen a lot of whales but none of them had fur on them. Greenpeace, oh fuck....Last time they had a protest at Prudue Bay, it took 2 weeks to clean up their shit and garbage they left behind. When they went home to where ever those people call home. "Those Hippies", Most of us are the old timers who used to be called hippies. Dont know if you've been around long enough to remember the old bumper stick here, "WE DONT CARE HOW YOU DO IT OUTSIDE ". Still true......We dont ........
Rather than making a personal attack, I would prefer that you make some kind of meaningful comment. Sunday there were about 200 protesters. Everything was peaceful. Hollywood types are starting to show-up, and as the week goes by I expect this event to grow. The point of my inclusion of Green Peace's comments was to show that in Alaska the idea of hunting whales is socially acceptable. The IWC has selected a friendly place for them to hold their convention. FYI I bet I have met just as many, if not more, native whale boat captains as you have. Of course if you are a whale hunter, this would be wrong, but I think you would have said that was the case from the start. And yes I have been around long enough to remember the bumper stickers. Have said it myself. As the week goes by I will post up-dates and links to information I feel might be interesting to many of the users of this forum. I think the IWC is here to hide behind Native whale hunting. By meeting in Alaska they are avoiding the conflict they would get in a place like Los Angeles. It looks to be a well made plan by those who hunt whales for money. (Oh, the fur comment was because the shop owners expressed their opinions, on the local TV news, about the threat to them from animal rights riots.... that may never happen).
Today there were about 300 protesters. Greenpeace led a small parade. Japan said it plans to kill over 1000 whales "for research." Here's a link for the whole story <http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=6575996>
-as with many endangered species...the tilting point comes when there is commercial viability (profit) to make it worthwhile I suppose whales could be turned into pet food and fertilizer products, etc., but ironically, much of what used to make them valuable was replaced by petroleum and other fossil substances. Trane oil - was a hot commodity back in Herman Melville's day. That is what the rendered blubber was referred to as...and at one point, before the petroleum industry really took off, they were so desperate for trane, that they even melted down iddy biddy penguins and puffins and whatnot, for the pittances they provided. I'd like to raise a point here - should an indigenous community hunt a traditional prey on a small scale, practising (obviously) strong conservation of this resource? If northern Cree clubbed, shot, harpooned or however - cute baby seals for the fur that provided their own clothing, would this be morally wrong? One can ponder that - having nothing to do with rich women on the continent sporting fur coats in air-conditioned opera houses, restaurants, and beauty salons............ There is a difference. I think the real danger posed to whale nations has nothing to do with what is happening in Alaska. It has everything to do with a globalized profit machine bent on exploiting any and every resource that can be turned into profit, period. The Japanese - are extremely touchy on this subject, because after WW2 when they were a hungry nation, whale meat kept them alive. Right or wrong, hunger has a way of tweaking the emotional responses, and it's no good to wag righteous fingers at them. Not when we're overstuffed, super-sized, and dieting like mad over here. (Not that they're particulary starving any more, but that's where the issue originally came from. Perhaps strong acknowledgement of that might go farther in convincing them to change their ways, I don't know...) All that being said, am I a whale lover? (Ever read Farley Mowat's "Sea of Slaughter?") If not - a must-read. The largest whales in the world's oceans do not compete with mankind for anything of any value to us - they consume tiny plankton - something we have no commercial use for. Studies have shown - in it's lifetime, an adult blue whale is far more valuable as an eco-tourist draw, then it would ever be, rendered into trane oil, pound for pound. A chicken or a piglet is just never going to have the same kind of impact on us as a great whale - anyone who has every looked one in the eye, cannot equate that with anything found in a barnyard. It is that same emotional response that drives the issue for many people. It's a strange thing - we know in our bones there's something going on there - we just don't know exactly what. If we ever do return to a full-scale hunt, that will be the end of whales. We're far too efficient at it now. As in the story of Moby Dick, it is still common history, that in that era of whaling, it was far more of a fair fight. The whales often won. They won't win anything, now.
Just to clear one thing up. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service <http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/protectedresources/whales/bowhead/FinalBowheadEA0203.pdf> Alaska natives harvest 250 beluga whales and 65 bowheads per year.
