Why are people against killing whales?

[TheTaco007]

Are they in any risk of being stop existing?
Think about it they eat tones of food every day and they are pretty much big blubber bags.
If your arguement is "They are so cute,I wear a whale T-shirton't hurt them" then your just being irrational.
So I ask you escapists, why shouldn't we just kill the whales? More food for us and I call it survival.


P.s. I come from Iceland where whale hunting isn't so illegal and everyone frown upon it so I don't get the point.

Because we aren't heartless psychopaths and we actually CARE about things.

Yes because a fucking whale is such a big thing to care about. An animal that you will never truly interact with, that regardless of how smart it is will never really show it because even if they are sentient they wont ever fucking talk to the human species and evidently cant even be used for food. Get a cat and love that, at least then you have an excuse of "its my pet and my friend that's why I love it" as opposed to "I LOVE IT BECAUSE I HAVE NEVER MET IT AND I LOVE EVERRRYYY THING EXCEPT PEOPLE BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE MEAN AND KILL THINGS"

Actually, I have seen whales before. I have swam out into the ocean and listened to whale song, and it was one of the greatest moments in my life. I won't waste my time trying to describe it to you, because you're obviously too narrow-minded to understand or care about these kinds of things.
Anyway, I don't have any strange attraction to whales, and I certainly wouldn't want one as a pet. I just think it's wrong that we are about to completely wipe another species off the face of the Earth. If you are so self-centered that you can't even see why this is wrong, then you are obviously a lost cause, and I'd like to ask you to please not contribute to the gene pool.

Man, I love when people say shit like this then call others narrow minded.
It was a whale making noise. Cats meow, dogs bark and whales go AAAWARRRROOOUUUUU like a bloated fat guy with gas. You personify animals too much and then refuse to accept reality in favor of your magical fantasy world, and others are the narrow-minded ones?
Also you don't understand classifications of animals too well. The species that is primarily being hunted is not endangered, the species that are endangered are protected. The genus which everyone seems to call species is in its self not endangered because you cant just go ALL WHALES ARE ENDANGERED because they all aren't.

I don't care what noise it makes or how much you personify something. That's not the point. The point is that you are killing wild animals when you don't have to be. Sure, if you're starving to death in a giant ship out at sea, and for some reason the only thing you can catch is a whale, go ahead and eat it, but you realize that it sounds like you're arguing that we should be able to kill anything we want because they communicate differently, and it aren't endangered. By your logic we should be able to go kill all the people in Japan simply because they talk differently and there are lots of them.

 

[Flap Jack452]

I think for the same reason people are against killing any other innocent animal. It's "irrational", as you put it.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Are they in any risk of being stop existing?
Think about it they eat tones of food every day and they are pretty much big blubber bags.
If your arguement is "They are so cute,I wear a whale T-shirton't hurt them" then your just being irrational.
So I ask you escapists, why shouldn't we just kill the whales? More food for us and I call it survival.


P.s. I come from Iceland where whale hunting isn't so illegal and everyone frown upon it so I don't get the point.

Well why bother keeping humans alive? They're just sacks of meat waiting to die.

I don't know if you've noticed, but we've already turned eating cows, sheep and pigs into an industry, why do we need to go after the animals that there are significantly less of, just for a tasty bite?

Because we can. Because we want to. Why not? There's no reason not to. Its edible therefore we should eat it. I want to eat tiger, I wish they weren't endangered so I could.

We SHOULD eat it? That's a bit odd. I can go fuck my sister if I want to. I can go stab someone in the face if I want to. Does it mean I should?

If you want to you could. We have laws against that sort of thing but go wild man, seriously. They'll haul you off but go nuts and enjoy it. We are after all animals. The smart animals are the worst of them too, chimps will rape, murder and whore themselves out for food after eating and killing other chimp's children. But I digress, the whale is still an animal. Since day one the human instinct towards an animal has been "Is that thing edible? Lets kill it and eat it." Kill and eat is what we do best, just because they're fat dolphins doesn't mean they should be exempt from this. People have said they're tasty, a lot better tasting then the shit on the land. People eat roaches, crickets and things too. They're not cows and chickens, should we stop them from eating those too? Should we stop vegetarians. Plants are living beings too, should we stop the helpless slaughter of those hapless plants?

'Could' and 'should' are two very different concepts though.

Humans are animals also, should we be eating them? I hear there are quite a few of them, and most of them are poor so we might as well just put them out of their misery.

I have absolutely no problem with the killing and eating of animals, it's a fully necessary part of life. A very fucking delicious one too, but hunting to the point of extinction just seems... excessive. And we pride ourselves on being intelligent, so you would think we know when to stop.

Of course, it doesn't matter one way or the other. There is no 'should' in the universe, everything ends up the same way. But we strive for to make our own lives as good as we can, I don't see the necessity in wiping species off the earth just for a tasty meal.

Human supposedly tastes terrible and is very fatty. I've always been curious, but I'm not about to try. But yeah, it's pretty much only the morality of the majority that keeps people from eating eachother. In extreme situations it happens, in a few rituals for a few tribes in the past they used to eat their enemies or their dead.

Actually, according to various reformed cannibal tribes, the taste of Spam is surprisingly similar to the taste of human flesh. Make of that what you will.

If the whales go then the populations of what the whales feed on will boom. All those fish and plankton going uneaten. They'll use up all the oxygen in the water and suffocate themselves. Everything in the seas will die. It would be like eutrophication

 

[wfpdk]

there poop stops global warming. don't you read the articles on this site?

 

[sjarri]

-snip-

 

[Radelaide]

Because they're, you know, endangered.

No, they are in fact NOT!

"The whales are endangered" logic falls apart once you remind people of the fact that their are many different species of whales, and that only some of them are endangered. The species we are hunting aren't one of them.

Actuuuuuuuuuuually, most species of whale are endangered. There are international laws against hunting certain species of whale. I know that Norway and Iceland hunt whales commercially, but don't hunt an endangered whale, and don't disguise it as "scientific research."

have you not been reading these posts? numerous people have said the milke whale is not endangered.

Did you fully read mine? Specifically the point where I said "I know that Norway and Iceland hunt whales commercially, but don't hunt an endangered species?"

No? Then try again

 

[Mullahgrrl]

I'm against whaling because i want there to be a stable population of them so that there can be a non objectionable sport hunting of those lovable critters.

Ive been dreaming of doing that since I saw my first Moby Dick parody!

 

[Ultrajoe]

Whales are a huge part of ocean ecology, with many different whales filling various roles and niches within the ecosystem? I don't know about you, but I don't think 'My country has always done it so it's still a good idea!' is a valid defense when you have vast swathes of ocean becoming deprived of CO2 thanks to human interference. To put that in persepctive, that's like suddenly finding that all the air around you has no oxygen. You are breathing, but suffocating at the same time. Want to know why this occurs in oceans? Disruption of the marine ecology by human or natural means. We know for a fact that our culling of whales is one cause of this disturbance.

Hunting only the whales not on the endangered list is still a freaking stupid thing to do. Yes, stupid, the act of doing it is stupid. As in, self-harm and gargling lighter fluid stupid. Whales of all kinds are the engine that drives the micro-organism ecology of the oceans, and saying 'Herp derp wez only kill the proper wuns' is like saying you only cut holes in your arteries at pre-approved zones on your body.

Cultures with whale-hunting as a tradition need to understand that occasionally tradition is stupid. America used to beat and enslave people with black skin, it turns out that this fine tradition was a bad idea. I'm not going to presume to know how you think, but I think directly and knowingly contributing to the death of marine ecosystems might just be a bad idea.

Y'know, just putting that out there. I, personally, don't like the destruction of the largest and most crucial bio-systems on my one and only planet. You may feel differently.

 

[Superior Mind]

Iceland hunts whales in a way that can maintain the population. I'm not opposed to that, moally I can't be. However when Japan comes down my end of the world and starts killing thousands of whales for, ahem, "research" that's where I draw the line. It's a cultural thing I guess and I'm tring not to be bigoted when I say this but Japan has not shown itself to be responsible in any kind of ecological way.

 

[Volothos]

That one Star Trek movie

 

[JokerboyJordan]

I personally find the hunting of any animal for entertainment or sport disgusting. I enjoy meat but livestock are in no danger of dying out unlike whales.I have read through every page and the various recurring points are
"It's part of our tradition"
"We only hunt the lesser endangered ones" or even
"It's delicious"

I can't say much as everything has been stated already and it's only around 5 people in the end who support Whaling in this thread.

OP should've added a poll.

 

[House_Vet]

Oh yeah, Gaia theory - /thread

No, that's GCSE or earlier basic ecology. Take one link out of a food chain or net, and everything can go screwy. Been done many-a-time by humans introducing foreign species into places or hunting local wildlife to extinction.

No, if you read Gaia theory, it is basically this - the "GCSE or lower ecology" you're talking about is simple, but only recently so well understood - look up Lovelock and Gaia.

 

[aaronmcc]

Well we're all fucked if they die out, just watch Star Trek 4!

FUCK! 7 pages of thread and i get ninja'd by 20 minutes!

 

[crystalsnow]

I am from Iceland to, and yes most of the foreign anti-whalers don't know jackshit what they are talking about. Thankfully the international whaling committee (I think it is called that) is discussing a change in the laws since most of its members are threatening to leave it, and they have made a proposal to Iceland that would allow us to hunt roughly 140 whales a year and its pretty decent.

Because they're, you know, endangered.

No, they are in fact NOT!

"The whales are endangered" logic falls apart once you remind people of the fact that their are many different species of whales, and that only some of them are endangered. The species we are hunting aren't one of them.

First of all genius, how do animals become endangered in the first place? Obviously has nothing to do with hunting them. Also, care to explain WHY you need to hunt them so badly in the first place?

 

[Zinaxos]

People have probably posted this before me but... Fuck you Whale and Fuck you Dolphin!!

 

[House_Vet]

Dear Sir, please let me enlighten you on our glorious whale hunting traditions here in Norway (and Iceland).

You're proud of killing something with a brain as complex as a human's and differently complex at that? I'm going to go throw up now. And no, I'm not a veggie, thanks for asking.

I did not say that.
While I do respect your opinion that whales have an equally complex brain as ours, I must say that I disagree.
While they may be more intelligent than other mammals, I do not believe that they are even close to a human.

And yes, I am proud of our traditions.

EDIT:

While whales possess the largest physical brains of any animal, there is no consensus about the existence, nature and magnitude of cetacean intelligence. This lack of knowledge is partly because of the cost and difficulty of carrying out research with marine mammals. Humpback whales have been found to have spindle neurons, a type of brain cell previously considered to exist only in dolphins, humans and other primates, and some species of whale are highly social.

There is an argument that whales should not be killed because of their alleged high intelligence. Pro-whalers counter that pigs, which also possess high intelligence, are routinely butchered and eaten, or indeed that intelligence should not be the determining factor of whether an animal is acceptable to eat or not.

Sorry about coming off a little strong - I was playing devil's advocate. I understand (I think) that it has been an important cultural element in scandanavia for many years. But this was driven by need to survive and I just don't see the need to carry it on. Personally I find the whole idea distasteful, and my family comes from Nantucket Island - heart of the North American whaling fleet at one time.

The point that wiki makes is sound, but it's a debate, not a straightforward yes/no as I'm sure you understand. From what I've seen of the degree of convolutions of whales' brains, they seem, on a purely anatomical basis, to be capable of complex higher processes. This is supported by cetacean group behavior, especially planned lunge feeding and bubble netting.
Plus, the fact that we barely ever see whales at all means there are vast gaps in our understanding of them. Thus in the interests of "science" we probably shouldn't be killing them off - there should be more targeted research on strandings and accidental killings and less commercial whaling.

 

[House_Vet]

People have probably posted this before me but... Fuck you Whale and Fuck you Dolphin!!

Congratulations, have a harpoon - I'll be sure to tell a certain someone who's maternally related to you that you're a brave kid when I go "spearing whales" of my own.

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

Because they're endangered, and we don't want them all to die out? Besides, I hardly think at this point in human history we need to kill whales for survival anymore.

 

[insaneHoshi]

Because they're, you know, endangered.

No, they are in fact NOT!

"The whales are endangered" logic falls apart once you remind people of the fact that their are many different species of whales, and that only some of them are endangered. The species we are hunting aren't one of them.

Actuuuuuuuuuuually, most species of whale are endangered. There are international laws against hunting certain species of whale. I know that Norway and Iceland hunt whales commercially, but don't hunt an endangered whale, and don't disguise it as "scientific research."

have you not been reading these posts? numerous people have said the milke whale is not endangered.

Did you fully read mine? Specifically the point where I said "I know that Norway and Iceland hunt whales commercially, but don't hunt an endangered species?"

No? Then try again

Oh my bad i thought you were refering to the japanese hunt of the milke whale when you said "scientific research"