TexasMadness
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Whale Wars
Anyone ever see this show? I caught it the first season while visiting my in-laws who have cable. It was a marathon and we sat in front of the tube for quite some time! It's an addicting show. They make Green Peace look like a bunch of slackers...
The Sea Shepard is a ship that goes and literally torments Japanese whaling vessels. While it is illegal to commercially harvest whales, you can harvest them for scientific research...and then eat the remains. So Japan has been maxing out the number they can catch every year and claiming research - and the Sea Shepard does everything possible to stop them.
Well - looks like they finally won a major battle. In the past, they may have put one or two whaling ships of out commission for a short period of time, but Japan has ended their whaling season a whole month early this year!
It's some pretty harsh stuff. I'm not sure I condone all of the Sea Shepard techniques, but they are getting results when decades of other attempts have failed.
But if I ever want to steel my nerves against what people like those on the Sea Shepard do, I just need to re-watch The Cove about the Taiji dolphin slaughter. THIS MOVIE IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. Nauseating. And there wasn't much "gore" just to gross you out. It was terribly emotional.
Does anyone else follow oceanic hunting? I was never really interested save the occasional "save the whales" slogan tossed here and there until I saw the Whale Wars show. Now I am an adamant supporter of stopping the activity. Unfortunately, that means not supporting those water parks that have dolphins (Sea World, etc) and I had looked forward to taking Willa to them...maybe things will change by the time she is older!
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2/22/2011, 10:58 pm
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Saijen SilverWolf1
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Re: Whale Wars
I don't usually watch things like that. I can hardly handle watching things like National Geographic's Animal Kingdom and watch one animal kill another as a natural order of things...so I know I'd not be able to watch something like that.
As for places like Sea World, etc, one thing to keep in mind is many of the animals in these places have never been in the wild. They are the offspring of either captured animals, or animals who were injured and would have ended up dead if they had been re-released into the wild. I don't think it would be against anything to visit these places...if anything, the money you would spend to get in, would, in fact, help to ensure the animals get the care, food and love that they need. Some food for thought.. :-)
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2/23/2011, 3:46 am
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TexasMadness
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Re: Whale Wars
Saijen SilverWolf1 wrote:
As for places like Sea World, etc, one thing to keep in mind is many of the animals in these places have never been in the wild. They are the offspring of either captured animals, or animals who were injured and would have ended up dead if they had been re-released into the wild. I don't think it would be against anything to visit these places...if anything, the money you would spend to get in, would, in fact, help to ensure the animals get the care, food and love that they need. Some food for thought.. :-)
This is exactly what I used to think before watching the documentary. I think it might still be true for the larger guys like killer whales, but it's not true for dolphins. The Taiji dolphin round-up occurs to sell animals to big water shows. They sell these for tens of thousands of dollars. But all the rest of the animals are sold for a few hundred for meat. The area is completely "over fished" and the way the slaughter occurs is atrocious (I won't go into detail - trust me, you don't want to know - makes our worst slaughter house horror stories sound like childrens stories). If the big sea parks weren't buying dolphins from Taiji, they couldn't make a living rounding up the dolphins just for meat. It would literally end the practice over night. Or at least that's what the documentary claims.
It was all news to me. And looking up some more info on the hunt to make sure I had the facts straight, it looks like exposure of the documentary is taking effect. The first hunt of 2010, they captured the dolphins, sold to aquariums, and just released the rest. So hopefully the practice is ending!
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2/23/2011, 4:11 am
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Saijen SilverWolf1
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Re: Whale Wars
I'm sorry to hear that it's not as I was led to believe!
I've seen how some of those poachers kill the animals. It's horrible.
Hopefully the documentary did push things to a halt, if not, at least slows it down considerably
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2/23/2011, 5:44 am
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Justbec
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Re: Whale Wars
I actually adopted a Humpback Whale about 10 years ago. His name was Buckshot. 
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2/23/2011, 5:03 pm
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Queenyforever
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Re: Whale Wars
Love it! 
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“Freedom and democracy are dreams you never give up.”
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2/23/2011, 5:07 pm
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Saijen SilverWolf1
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Re: Whale Wars
very cool, bec!!!!
Queeny, I'm like you. I can't watch shows like 'Animal Horders', or shows that show any animal that's been mistreated....it really tears me up..so, I don't watch things like that.
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2/23/2011, 11:26 pm
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Justbec
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Re: Whale Wars
I'm the same way. I use to watch Animal Planet a lot but not anymore. Too many shows where the animals were abused or hurt.
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2/23/2011, 11:55 pm
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Queenyforever
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Re: Whale Wars
Sometimes it's hard enough to hold my emotions in check...I don't need to go out of my way to add to that... 
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“Freedom and democracy are dreams you never give up.”
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2/24/2011, 9:06 pm
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Much to my parents dismay, and they forbid me to do that....lucky for them, Green Peace never contacted me.
