fenrizz said:
Dear Sir, please let me enlighten you on our glorious whale hunting traditions here in Norway (and Iceland).
I'll quote Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling] here, feel free to check it out.
Minke whales are the only legally hunted species. Catches have fluctuated between 487 animals in 2000 to 592 in 2007. The catch is made solely from the Northeast Atlantic minke whale population, which is estimated at 102,000.
<-- is a miss
This is something you need to clarify in the TITLE or very first sentence of your forum post. Whales, as a general use of the term, are endangered, as there are more species of whales which are close to extinction than not. Therefore EVERYONE is going to automatically assume you mean whales in general, myself included.
No, personally I don't have a problem with a country that hunts an animal which is in plentiful supply. Humans are meant to hunt and eat meat. The problem is that every other person out there who screams out against your country killing whales is making the exact same assumption that this forum is making, that you are hunting any ol whale you come across, some of which could be endangered, which is obviously a bad thing. Those that know better and still scream are just crazy extremists...the sort of people who try and force their vegetarian beliefs on everyone else, which I DO have a problem with, even though I don't eat much meat.
I think one of the major problems is that whales have garnered a zealot following...it's one of those things that people use as a focal point in environmental issues as a whole. Granted it was necessary back before there was much concern for the environment or its animals.
When someone feels extremely strong about an issue, and over and over again find themselves faced with people who don't care, it becomes frustrating to the point of insanity. I seriously think zealots/extremists, no matter what their beliefs are, are people who were just driven to insanity from frustration. They are people who have no sense of humor and who don't understand that they can't, and SHOULDN'T, change the world entirely on their own to match their views, no matter how right they think they are.
When I get to the point of feeling frustrated with someone because they are opposed to or don't care about something I believe in, I just have to shrug, laugh about it and walk away. It's hard to do, but I was taught how and am very thankful for that. lol
So, you probably just have to deal with it for now. Whenever you meet someone who speaks about it angrily to you, point out what you told me and make sure they know endangered species aren't on the list. It makes a big difference.