Whales

[happy daze john in oz]

Whales those gigantic but gentle leviathens of the oceans, roaming the waters of the world in pure innocence giving great pleasure to those lucky enough to see them breeching. For generations saught and slaughtered for their blubber to boil down to oil, and their bones for a number of uses not withstanding the whalebone corset of the Victorian ladies.
But with the passing of time and the discovery of new materials the need to slughter these most beatiful creatures came to an end. The herds began to flourish again and many were seen around the globe. Commercial whaling came to an end though a small number of countries were still allowed for cultural reasons to take one or two a year.
But for one nation this was not enough, the Japanese snubbed the ruling and by using a little known loophole in the law continued to slaughter Minky whales on the pretence of scientific research. Up to 400 Minky whales each year slaughtered in the so called name of science, but for the younger generation the taste of whale meat is not to their liking, it is estimated that up to 100 thousand tons of whale meat are in Japans freezers. The whaling lobby there has great pull with the government who give considerable financial support to them. For years the Australian government has objected to this practice as much of it takes place in the Souther oceans close to Australian waters. Today the international court upheld the complaint by Australia saying that the hunting of these whale is illegal and must ceace immediately.It will be interesting to see the reaction of Japan now!

[John Arton]

John in Oz
Thanks for your post but unfortunately I doubt that the Japanese will take a blind bit of notice of any international ruling in the same way that the Chinese will should any ruling against the slaughter of sharks purely for their fins ever come into force.
Seeing a whale breach is one of the best sights in the world and one of the most amazing sights I ever saw at sea was when going round the bottom end of Madagascar and on the morning 4-8 watch, up ahead of us I saw something that looked like a scene fro Jules Vernes 1000 leagues under the sea. It just looked like a fight between a giant octopus and a whale from afar but as we got closer it was a massive school of humpbacked whales leaping out of the sea and the-r flippers? with all those knobbly bits on them looking like octopus tentacles, showing. Along with the whales was a huge pod of dolphins. Both of them were engaged in a feeding frenzy and the sea was alive and boiling with them leaping out of the water and slamming back down. This went on for about three hours until we eventually cleared the area, having altered course to avoid the main groups.
rgds
JA

[John Albert Evans]

Once in the late 1950's when I was on tanker going north in the south atlanic somewhere off Brazil we passed a school of whales. As far as the eye could see there were whales breaching there were far too many to count but its a sight to remember forever, its a shame that we didn't have the camera technology that we have today. Another time I was sitting on the poop deck in the Indian Ocean, the water was inky black , dead flat no with whatsoever Then I saw a fin of a shark break the water on one side of the ship and it just cut through the water like a knife it swam in a semi circle around the ship then just dissapeared like a submarine going down. Both were wonderful sights. When i left the MN i joined the Police Force and during that time I witnessed very many nasty sights of what one human being can do to another, you had to 'switch off' and just get on and deal with it. BUT the worst sight I've ever seen was on a Television documentary not so long ago where is showed people (I dont remember which race) catching sharks with a net. When they pulled them on to the small boat they were in they just cut off the sharks fins both side and dorsal fins, they threw them into a bucket and threw the shark still alive back into sea. I cannot repeat what I could have done to those men
John Albert Evans.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates, I only know one shipmates who was on a whaler, but he lost his good lady last year,{Ships Captains Daughter} tough as they come , and has moved to london to live with his daughter, so I am no longer in the loop, he was writing me his tale of his time on one very graphic, which I would have posted on the great forum but it was not to be...

[Keith Tindell]

Hi John A Evans, what years were you in the police, just wondering, i know someone from Dyfed and Powys police force, now retired KT

[Captain Kong]

I once had a girl friend in Durban, always talking , never shut up. I called her the WHALE.
she said why do you keep calling me the Whale, I said , its because you are always Spouting., I got a good slap off her. Her Dad didn t like me so it ended.
Cheers
Brian.

[happy daze john in oz]

John #2 you may well be correct but to date they have said they will accept the ruling. This may well be the case as the Japanese gov poors millions into the whaling industry to keep it going and this may give them a way out. Interesting thing is this is only one of half a dozen cases where the internatonal court had agreed with those putting forward the submission, in this case Oz.

[Don Rafferty]

Whenever whales are mentioned, this song comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNp5dc0v-3c

[cappy]

just listened to that don 1st time ive heard it truly very sad and poignant....regards cappy

[Captain Kong]

Just announced on the News,
The International Court has Banned Japan from Whaling.
Dont know if they will take any notice of that.
Cheers
Brian