Having a whale of a time

There is a story about an Australian farmer and a debate he has with one of his sheep, as told by whalers in Norway.

It begins with the Aussie telling the sheep that there is no need to eat whale meat anymore.  The sheep replies, "That's good news, then there is no need to eat sheep meat either."

The farmer replies, "No, no, no!  Whale eaters are going to eat sheep meat instead."

The story ends with the sheep trying to convince the farmer that all life forms are special, but the Aussie insists that whales are special because he believes they are special.  The sheep finally replies, "Baaaaah!"

Like many Norwegians, I find the Greenpeace campaign against whaling, and Australia's support for it, somewhat naïve.

The hunting of an animal species for food should be respected unless one of two criteria is violated:  the harvest is unsustainable or the method of killing is inhumane.

In the case of whaling by the Norwegians and Japanese it is undertaken in accordance with strict quota and there is no evidence to suggest numbers of minke whales are in decline.  Furthermore, the use of a grenade tipped harpoon guarantees a speedy death as long as the shot is accurate.

While the Japanese are condemned for using the pretext of science through a loop hole in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) regulations to kill hundreds of whales each year, the Norwegians simply whale in defiance of the Commission.

In the lead-up to the recent federal election, the then Labor Opposition said it would take a tough stance against whaling and use military resources to gather evidence to mount a case against the Japanese.

The federal election has been and gone and the surveillance vessel, the Oceanic Viking has remained in port for most of this month.

The Federal Court in Sydney handed down a decision last Tuesday ruling that it is indeed illegal for the Japanese to hunt whales in Australia's southern whale sanctuary.  The Judge also acknowledged that the international community does not recognise Australia's claim to Antarctica or our whale sanctuary and so the ruling can't practically be enforced.

Indeed the Rudd government will not take action against the Japanese because that could be considered an act of war by the international community.

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