I am not starting this to create tension but to get some different world views.

Where do you stand on whaling? I am totally against it.
We have had pictures of whales bleeding to death, greenpeace protesters having harpoons fired at their boats and hearing it is all for research.
I am not for the whole ;they are just big fish; argument as I also feel we are fishing the life out of the ocean.

I have spent my whole life between the ocean and Australia's largest salt water lake and seen what fishing has done.

I remember a buzz going around town when i was 9 that a record shark was on the way in, we all rushed down to the weigh station, there must have been 2000 people there and hung up was this shark. It, to me, was beautiful. It had died so someone coule get their picture with it, the saddest part was seeing them cut the fins of it and the jaws out and throw it in the water, This to me was no less then killing a 20yo person for their teeth.

I have spent my life at the beach and on one occasion came within metres of a shark but they don't deserve to be culled, same as the whales.

I have aquariums at home and see how quick fish breed. Why can't we have a global ban on fishing for say 2 years, that time will pass before we know it and the fish stocks will be back up to that of 10 years ago.

What are your thoughts on it all?

i had an 850 gallon fresh water tank for 11 years while a friend was building his house.
it is now a dividing wall between 3 rooms, an incredible design.
whalers should be harpooned in the ass!

Just about everyone (except the Japanese) is against it.....and, by the way, j_w_h, they are not =fish=.

There's no question that overfishing of some species has occurred in some areas, but a global ban on fishing for two years? This is a wild overreaction to the problem. I'm a commercial fisherman in Maine, USA. I have a family to feed. NMFS and the DMR already paint the regulations with such an absurdly broad brush that it becomes harder to make ends meet with each passing year, and for no good reason. Intelligent management of the resource is needed, not knee-jerk reactions.

If you can show me good evidence that these wales are an endangered species then it should be regulated like any other type of fishing.
We are the _top_of_the_food_chain_, we kill and eat what we want. Double standards for whales is not going to work. Maybe nobody has seen the size of the hammer you need to use to kill a tuna and how much blood is splattered all over the place, people only worry about the dolphions that get caught in the process. Farming fish and animals is more humane but not much, we use bullets, nails and electrodes. Oh and there's chickens too, that's gotta be the worst. Maybe we should encourage the next generation to become mostly vegetarian, because most of us won't change, we eat meat.
And by the way, the so called scientific research the whalers do is simply counting the fish inside the stomachs of the whales.

Well Jon I would be training your kids to do something other then fishing as i doubt there will many fish left to catch in 30 years time.

18919 I think the point he was trying to make about the fish was there is often comebacks from Japan that Australians catch all different types of fish so why get upset about whales.
Their best comeback was Aussies eat the animal on their coat of arms.

When I was over in NZ's western state (Australia) visiting friends over christmas there was an ad on TV talking about meat and having a bbq and that Australia has the only eaten coat of arms animal in the world. It was a great ad, not sure what it was for.

>Willem@559 posted on January 16, 2006, 11:58 pm
>Well Jon I would be training your kids to do something other then >fishing as i doubt there will many fish left to catch in 30 years >time.

People have been saying that since catches started declining here in the 1850s. Last year in Maine the total catch for the species I harvest was over 70 million pounds and the most current research indicates that motality levels due to fishing are within safe limits, the population is healthy, and overfishing is not occurring. My kids will be free to make their own choices about their vocation. If they elect to remain on the remote island where we live, where commercial fishing is the *only* means of making a good living, the fishery will still be intact for them as it has been for generations, regardless of unfounded gloom and doom prophesy.

Jon that was VB commercial...

Thanks, guys. You helped me decide what to fix for dinner. Grilled Albacore tuna sandwiches (cut lunch) with mango chutney. Delicious!

1rst caveman: "i'll have the roast duck with the mango salsa."
2nd caveman: "i don't have much of an appetite thankyou."

sorry im with woberto here - although im not sure of any practical reasons for whaling that exist

mmmmm yelow tail nigiri