Dolphin, Whale and Traditional

Japan has lunches new whale hunt. No... not commercial fishermen, but the government. According to an AFP news article (click here), 5 government ships left for northwestern Pacific to kill 260 whales.

Get this, we measure human population by the unit billion. On contrast, we measure whale population by the unit thousand and at times hundred. And Norway is going to kill 1052 whales while Japan will kill 260 whales this year... on international water... our water. They claim that slaughtering whales is part of their tradition.
Well, wearing kimono without underwear that's traditional, eating with chopsticks, that's traditional. ( since you are not hurting animal andpeople with the kimono traditional and chopsticks..., knock your self out) But more times than not, the word "traditional" had been used as an excuse to do thing without the need to justify it, simply because the parents did it or the great grandparents did it.
And come to think about it, there are different groups of people who had the traditional of headhunting, human sacrifice and cannibalism... I don't see that they are going back to their way by justifying it with the word "traditionally..."
Whale sashimi (raw fish, sushi on the other hand is raw fish with rice), emmm... looks delicious, only problem is that, Whale is not really a fish. It's mammal... so it's more like eating a piece of raw pork... or rat... nice...

If you are interested to check out more information about Whale hunting in modern days, check out this site, Blue Voice.

Also, check out this insightful show (NATURE channel, PBS and DVD) by Hardy Jones.

Another group that work with action is the Virtual March, organized by Greenpeace.

At WDCS (the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society) you will find solid fact, picture and even video clips... example are listed below.
Dolphin hunt report in PDF.
Clip of dolphin hunt.

If you are able, adopt a whale.