Around the world, I am sure the whale community is aware that they now have friends in Switzerland!

In an amazing and yet sane move by the Swiss government, officials have now banned the keeping of Dolphins in zoo aquariums in Switzerland.

In a recent blog from the New York Times, a “cushioned warning” has been recorded about whales,

made by President Obama against Iceland.

The warning is tantamount to saying how much the budget was cut, when in reality nothing was really “cut”.

This is a portion of the blog regarding whaling is what I want to focus on:

In a move hailed by conservation activists, President Barack Obama initiated potential diplomatic sanctions against Iceland this week for its commercial whaling activity. The sanctions include six measures ranging from possibly limiting cabinet-level visits to Iceland to limiting cooperation with Iceland in the Arctic region. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I read an article about a recently approved hunt of a Bowhead whale in Alaska.

The whale was hunted and killed, using a license issued through the Canadian Government.

The meat of the bowhead being cut up by an Inuit. Wait just a minute...is that a "Yamaha jacket" she's wearing? What about the "igloo cooler" in the background, and the Coleman stove? Wow! Tradition at it's height...PHOTO COURTESY APTN

Bowheads have not been hunted in one hundred years. The Inuits state that it is their right and part of their cultural heritage to do so. Some of the reasoning explained by members of the Inuit nation is that one whale can feed many people; the cost of normal meat or poultry is far more expensive. Besides, the Bowhead population is now at a sustainable level where at least eighteen Bowhead can be killed yearly. Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent article this week on ecorazzi, Pierce Brosnan took on center stage for whaling concerns:

Pierce Brosnan, photo courtesy Ecorazz1

Pierce Brosnan seems to be getting into his latest role, animal and environmental advocate. He is calling for an end to Iceland’s whale hunt.

The actor has teamed up with the National Resources Defense Council and is leading their campaign to stop Icelandic whaling. In a recent post on OnEarth, Brosnan said “Last December, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other groups filed a petition to stop Iceland’s rogue whaling. In response, the U.S. Commerce Secretary recently declared that Iceland is defying the international ban on commercial whaling. That declaration started the clock ticking on a 60-day period during which President Obama must decide whether or not to impose trade sanctions on Iceland.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Is it the Polar Bear's fault for the death of a young man or the fault of the program that sent him there?

This past week mourns the loss of a student in Norway who lost, what the press and a few people think was a brutal and violent murder.

Many readers and those close to the incident have mixed emotions about it, simply because of the press the media has given it. Read the rest of this entry »

With the life of whales in the balance, is the Obama administration really capable of making a decision to save them?

The Obama Administration could save whales or end their life in our seas

“A few days ago, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and the U.S. Department of Commerce formally declared that Iceland is undermining the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by hunting whales in defiance of the IWC’s global ban on commercial whaling. As a result of this declaration, President Obama now has 60 days to decide whether to impose economic penalties and/or trade sanctions against Iceland pursuant to legislation known as the ‘Pelly Amendment’. Diplomatic negotiations and disapproval of other countries have so far failed to stop this practice.” Read the rest of this entry »

What can be considered a bold move by the Obama administration, could be considered a blade with two sharp edges.

Recently and According to the Associated Foreign Press, environmentalists convinced Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to enact the Pelly Amendment to the Fisherman’s Protective Act that could impose a whole variety of sanctions on Iceland.

A frrustrated IWC board member

In an en-masse walkout orchestrated by Japan, the attempt to create a southern whale sanctuary has been put off another year.

That means more whales to be hunted and killed. It also means that the small band of recalcitrants, Watson and his band of merry men (and women), must once again single-handedly battle the Japanese.

At the meeting, one of the top Japanese officials commented that this could herald a return to the fractious days of the past, and walked out in an attempt to bring the meeting below the quorum needed for votes to count.

“We fear that the fact of voting will probably damage the very good atmosphere we have established, and might trigger a landslide of many votes for next year which might disrupt the progress we have made,” said Japan’s alternate (or deputy) commissioner Joji Morishita.

The Japanese insist they have done nothing wrong, although they have twisted language to make themselves right. And then the very countries that walk out are the very countries Japan has given financial aid to or bought whale meat from. Many if these countries have been turned recently to the side of pro-whaling, date coincident with Japanese financial support.

Yet, the Japanese state they have “done nothing wrong”.

The truth is that the Japanese government  never is willing to hold themselves accountable. For over fifteen years, the government battled their own countrymen in denying that their toxic incinerators had harmed anything. Incinerators that are probabaly the largest refuse burning facilities in the world, and burn 24/7. Yet people were dying and children deformed.

Additionally Japanese officials denying they bribe and take bribes for their over- fishing. Yet this very past year they were caught bribing Russian inspectors to look the other way when fishing counts were far above agreed upon quotas.

It doesn’t stop there. The Japanese government, when alerted to the fact that officials had been bribed in a recent whale meat scandal,  jailed the people that blew the whistle on their underhanded dealings. Publicly only two Japanese governmental employees were chastised, when it was known more than just two government employees participated. The solution was to have the two men bow there heads on Japan National Television and say they were sorry. Nothing else was done to these people. Moving to the usage of the word “research”, well the truth is that Japanese officials sought out a loophole in wording ( a twist and misuse of the English language) as a means to then catch whales that are then sold into the public market.

It is the same for the recent Toyota debacle, where many Americans lost their lives to faulty automotive Japanese equipment. Japanese automakers have cried “foul” and went to the extent of paying hush money to the key witnesses. In all of that, Japanese officials claim no wrong doing!

But no Japanese official claims or is willing to take any responsibility for their actions. “Gods” can’t be responsible for anything and can do anything they please, anywhere!

Why do I say “Gods”? Remember that the emperors of Japan were considered Gods (although they bleed and were completely human, frail to all human traits and avarice), but they could do no wrong, no matter who they killed or laws they imposed on the people. And the people to this day don’t dare to speak out, simply because the contagion of aberration has been impressed on them for so long, that they have forgotten their own freedoms.

And those self same officials have certified their own “official” documents saying that minke whales, for example can be hunted because their numbers are sustainable. Well, after you have read the above, how much do you really trust those documents? I don’t!

So when the pro-whaling group of Japanese, Iceland and African nations walked out of the meetings, they can say that they have done nothing wrong by paying and buying off those countries, I can actually understand why they feel they have and never will,  done anything wrong.

After all, they are “gods” and accountable to no one.

And when the seas are finally laid bare, mark my words. Japan will only stand up on television (after years of denial) and then say “we so sorry”. And that will be that. The whales and all other sea life will be pillaged.

Is that the planet you wish to live in?

Resources is a term used by all men on this tiny blue planet. And it’s concept is what is destroying our planet.

Really?

Well, take a look at the word – the concept – of what resources really mean. Per Encarta’s definition, resource means “ the nation’s natural, economic, or military asset enjoyed by a nation, e.g., mineral wealth, labor, capital…” The word is taken from Latin, “surgere”, literally to “rise up from below”.

If we look deeper into the actual concept of the word, however, it is a bit dark. I say that because there is nothing in its description that says “replenish” or “care for”. Understand that this word has been used for hundreds of years in the English language.

Read the rest of this entry »

It is a funny thing how man has evolved.

And it is just my opinion, mind you, but here goes.

Back when men wore loincloths and wielded clubs, he survived any way that he could. He had enough problems communicating with his own kind and due to the lack of food, sought anything and everything for shelter or for something to eat. He never really worried about other creatures, he only worried about his own existence.

Move forward a few thousand years. Man has learned technology. He has realized that he has a brain, which sets him apart from other creatures.  His societies and language grows as well as his ability to better survive the elements and feed himself and his family.

Read the rest of this entry »