Japan Whaling Fleet Sets Out on Commercial Hunt

Japanese officials are giving out the usual nonsense about this being a "scientific" mission. It's not. They plan on killing 50 humpback whales and 935 minke whales.

Families waved little flags emblazoned with smiling whales and the crew raised a toast with cans of beer, while a brass band played "Popeye the Sailor Man." Officials told the crowd that Japan should not give into militant activists and preserve its whale-eating culture.

"They're violent environmental terrorists," mission leader Hajime Ishikawa told the ceremony. "Their violence is unforgivable ... we must fight against their hypocrisy and lies."

The whalers plan to kill up to 50 humpbacks in what is believed to be the first large-scale hunt for the once nearly extinct species since a 1963 moratorium in the Southern Pacific put the giant marine mammals under international protection.

Flags with smiling whales? No hypocrisy there.

The Japanese hunt, which puts meat from the whales on the commercial market, is growing rapidly despite an increasingly vocal anti-whaling movement. This winter season's target of up to 1,035 whales is more than double the number the country hunted a decade ago.

Japan argues that it should have the right to hunt whales as long as they are not in danger of extinction.

Again, the truth comes out. This has nothing to do with science. It's all about the money. And don't give me this crap about culture. This could be considered a part of American culture at one time. I just don't buy the fact that issues of "culture" automatically make something virtuous.

Whaling is a barbaric practice that should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Photo by Ahisgett