Hunting and killing methods have been improved to ensure as little harm to the whales as possible.
Apart from the … hunting and the killing.
Why even hunt whales in the first place? Sure, it’s one big food source when you snag one, but people who have tried whale say it’s bland and uninteresting. It’s just a bunch of fat. And it takes a lot of effort to kill it, haul it, parse it out, etc.
Fish farms give you much more good quality meat without all of the species endangerment.
There are certain very small remote communities in the far north that are isolated and hard to reach. Whale and seal hunting provides a guaranteed food source for these small communities so that they don’t have to depend on incredibly expensive (both resource and moneywise) imports. The Faroe Islands is not one of those places because obviously a cruise ship can easily get to it.
I have been to Iceland and Greenland and Alaska and Norway, etc. I promise you there is no utilitarian need to hunt whales in any of these places. They all have grocery stores where you can buy pineapples for reasonable prices.
We can argue tradition, but there is no utility here.
I have lived in two of those places for years and I can tell you that you have no idea what you’re talking about.
For example, Fairbanks is only one third of the way up Alaska. There’s still so much left north of it.
I mean, do they?
like not every place has a grocery store that’s easy to get to
https://allthatsinteresting.com/ambergris
Ambergris, The Rare ‘Whale Vomit’ Used In Perfume
I mean, the cruise ship and its inhabitants are “guests” so I’m not sure where they get off telling the locals what to do?
While I certainly don’t condone hunting and killing whales (I also don’t eat meat for the same reasons, ie. animals shouldn’t have to suffer just so they can tantalize our taste buds), if these are local customs and it’s not harming the environment then maybe people shouldn’t be all high-and-mighty about it. Especially if they are chowing down on veal, lamb, or any meat for their meals.
Considering where these people live, I’m guessing historically speaking being fully vegetarian may not have been an option, so I wouldn’t really judge them too harshly for customs that were likely built around survival as much as anything else. But maybe I’m off base, just guessing really.
i agree. some values are universal, like what should be considered cruel, but slaughtering pigs is pretty cruel too (i eat them anyways!). to me, what’s funny here is how privileged first world people just hate to see how the hot dog is made, so to speak.
it’s like privileged people hating to simply see homeless people in cities even though the system that makes people homeless is necessary to keep the high property values that they benefit from. the mere witness of the cruelty we benefit from in modern society makes the privileged one feel like a victim.
Yeah, I’m a vegan but I don’t bother telling you bloodmouths what I really think of you. It won’t change your mind and will only make me frustrated if I let myself give a shit.
Mockery is much better than outrage.
In completely unrelated news, some whales seem to be attacking boats/yachts. How weird! Why could this be?
Are you talking about the orcas that are doing it apparently for shits and giggles or is there bigger underwater uprising on the way?
Well yeah that is what I was talking about, though the articles I saw didn‘t mention any reason at all and if they had said “shits and giggles” I‘d be even more sceptical of that, since I don‘t think animals really fight without a reason.
Now here is where we get to my wild conspiracy theory, I think aquatic species may not like boats, who they can see killing their species or hunting their food sources. Then they react to a predator, so either they flee or attack. Orcas being some of the bigger ones are probably the few who stand any chance whatsoever fighting, so they might try sometimes.
Edit: Ok I just googled around and saw the articles you mentioned saying they do it for fun, I also found this: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/11/the-orca-uprising-whales-are-ramming-boats-but-are-they-inspired-by-revenge-grief-or-memory
Which explains why it may be playful behaviour, but also made me feel a bit more like at least I‘m not the only one who sees this other possibility too. It also gave me more of an idea of why I might want to see it this way (I think there is a lot of injustice happening and I feel powerless).
Orcas absolutely do shit like that for fun. They play with their food, like throwing a seal around to each other before killing and eating it.
This is new and different from before, though. If it was just for fun this wouldn’t be newsworthy because it would have already been happening.
For a moment I thought the whales were somehow killed by the cruise ship…
