Japanese whaling outrage

According to this BBC report, a Japanese whaling fleet left on Sunday for a 5-month expedition that includes the take of “900 minke whales . . . 50 fin whales . . . [and] 50 humpback whales.” The Japanese claim that this expedition is for scientific purposes, and that the numbers taken will have little impact on the populations of these species.

Look, I’m not anti-hunting nor even anti-whaling, but come on people! 1000 whales for scientific purposes?! What do they hope to learn, how much a plate of humpback sushi will go for in trendy Tokyo restaurants? Go ahead and try to get a permit to “scientifically collect” 1000 robins or 1000 raccoons or even 1000 white-tailed deer in the U.S. It ain’t gonna happen. Why? Because even our government has the prescience to recognize that such a collection in the name of science would be excessive. [Kudos to us, btw, for at least jumping on the bandwagon of international outcry, although I’m sure Bush- and Cheney-ites in Washington are cracking jokes like, “Hey Japan, bring me back one of them there whale steaks – I hear they taste almost as good as spotted owl!”]

God love the Japanese, but these people are among the world’s worst non-sustainable consumers of the rare or otherwise valuable. Amazon hardwoods are one thing, but in 2007, can’t at we at least lay off the big whales? History has already taught us that commercial harvest of large whales is totally unsustainable. Why let the Japanese commit these sins of the past under their thinly veiled guise of scientific research? It’s an outrage.