Whale blubber sashimi is a dish best served cold

About fucking time somebody took Japan to court over their nasty commercial whaling.  Kevin Rudd rocks!!!

What a difference a multi-million gallon oil spill off wetlands, fisheries and resort beaches makes.  Now, thanks to BP’s fuckup and the failure of an oil rig that was supposedly spill-proof, it looks like additional coastal drilling may be off the table…at least while this is still in the news.

It really comes down to this – I don’t believe Americans can really remember stuff that happened before the current news cycle.  Seriously, just watch – somebody will discover some politician or celebrity’s reproductive organ lodged somewhere it isn’t supposed to be, the oil spill will fade from memory (along with countless threatened and endangered spills in the Gulf of Mexico), and Palin et. al. will be out screaming Drill, Baby Drill with renewed vigor.

It’s like all that talk a few years ago about how nuclear power was gaining new support. Obama even included building a few new of the unstable light water reactors in his energy plan.  What the hell will it take to take that option off the table, another Three Mile Island or a Chernobyl (history of those nuclear power accidents, in case you too have amnesia)?

Whale blubber sashimi is a dish best served cold

It’s being spun as a compromise, but the latest effort to ‘cap’ the annual whale kill on the part of the rogue whaling nations of Japan, Norway and Iceland really comes down to providing an international framework to legitimize the commercial blubber sashimi trade.

I’m with Patrick R. Ramage, global whale program director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare:

“From our point of view, it’s a whaler’s wish list.  It would overturn the ’86 moratorium, eviscerate the South Ocean Whale Sanctuary, subordinate science and I.W.C. precedent to reward countries that have refused to comply by allocating quotas to those three countries.”

Amen, brother, say “No!” to appeasement as did Australia , Tokelau, New Zealand, Fiji and many other Pacific nations.

I wonder what they think is going to happen when the blue fin tuna is practically extinct (in commercial terms) in a few years?   Somebody else’s problem, I guess.

Well kudos to the plucky Prince of Monaco.  I’ve come to the opinion that the republican form of government has become thoroughly compromised and is way overrated.

Where is the Kevin Rudd of the Mediterranean?  The Bob Barker of Bluefin?

While I like and support Sea Shepherd’s work, I’m no big fan of their founder, Paul Watson.  Case in point, he’s equating the potential end of Japanese Antarctic whaling with the end of commercial whaling:

“Whaling was shut down today,” Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said via satellite phone from aboard a nearby ship. “There’s no whaling now and hopefully no whaling after this.”

Well…what about Iceland?  What about Norway?  What about so-called Russian & U.S. “traditional” indigenous whaling?  I think his organization would have a much easier time putting pressure on those countries and shutting down whaling faster than playing faux pirate in the Antarctic waters with the Japanese cast as the only villains.

Anyway, hopefully Bob Barker’s courageous donations will be a clarion call that will inspire other game show hosts to donate additional money and tools to pro-environmental groups…how about a 16 inch/50 caliber Mark 7 naval gun for the new ship?

It’s like expecting the International Whaling Commission which includes only whaling countries, several of whom subsidize their <strike>commercial</strike> “research” whaling activities to seriously ban whaling – it’s not going to happen.

Why do we carry on these charades?  Well in the absence of a serious transnational authority over oceanic resources, the only way to get these countries to sit at the table is if they are scared that by not participating, somebody else will destroy the last of the ‘stocks’ first.  I guess it’s sort of a tragedy of the commons situation where all the parties sit around regularly and jawbone about the looming tragedy, then just do whatever the fuck they want to during the rest of the year.

At this point the tuna’s only hope appears to be tiny Monaco’s attempt to get CITES to declare the tuna endangered, thus triggering far stricter action on the part of CITES members:

Environmental groups are now backing a call from Monaco for the issue of bluefin tuna to be taken before a March meeting of CITES, an international body that sets rules against illegal wildlife trade, with the aim of declaring the fish endangered and putting a ban on catching it.

In related news, Pacific whales may have some hope not from positive political action but rather from Japanese government funding cuts that may cut the subsidies that keep their ‘research’ vessels in business.

*Update* Check out the Sea Shepherd’s new speedster

*Update 11/17/09* Found this funny South Park parody of Whale Wars – I think that kid may be onto something

*Update 11/18/09* Speaking of overfishing, prepare to say goodbye to this skate

Second, it’s encouraging from the perspective that apparently all the crazy conflict in Kashmir has resulted in an increase in wildlife in the region as poaching has decreased.  I guess if the bear could only figure out how to use those AK-47s he could probably wipe out the insurgency by himself while improving the odds for local wildlife!

“…extinction rates of animal species are much higher than had been predicted only a few years ago.”