Japan resumes whaling in Antarctic waters

[Mags 112]

The eating of Whale meat is on the decline in Japan. To counteract this they have started feeding it to kids as part of the school lunch program so they get a "taste" for it and thus keep demand high.

An interesting article (just about whales in general);

Famous for their acrobatic leaps and haunting songs, these whales are slowly revealing the mysteries of their underwater behavior.

Remember when the biggest animals in the world seemed in danger of vanishing? It was during the 1960s and '70s, when commercial hunting had made many of the great whale species so scarce it looked as if the world would be robbed of an entire dimension of wonder.

It wasn't. If you visit the 'Au'au Channel between the Hawaiian islands of Maui and LÄna'i in winter today, you'll find the ocean grown chunky with titans. Humpback whales that weigh as much as 45 tons (41 metric tons) rise and spout everywhere, roll in spirals, slap the surface with fins or tail flukes. They leap with their tails almost clearing the surface while chins reach 40 feet (12 meters) into the sky, then fall back in a KER-WHOMP! that carries for miles.

Reduced to a few thousand worldwide, humpbacks began to rebound after an international ban on killing them went into effect in the 1960s. A soon-to-be completed three-year census dubbed SPLASH, the largest, most intensive humpback whale survey ever undertaken, could put the North Pacific population alone at more than 10,000 and possibly as many as 25,000.

Half to two-thirds of those whales gather around Hawaii from late November into May, especially here in the channel and other parts of the 1,370-square-mile (3,550 square kilometers) Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. For every humpback drawing cheers from whale-watching boats as it raises a splash in the sunshine, many more lie below.

Whales ordinarily come into view only briefly, when they part the ocean's shimmer to breathe. Humpbacks, though more active at the surface than most, still spend about 90 percent of their lives below. What are they doing down there? They roam too widely through rough and remote seas for scientists to follow; it's no wonder the ways of whales, Earth's grandest life-forms, are still steeped in mystery. But out in the wonderfully clear, blue, warm waters of the 'Au'au Channel, investigators have been gathering new clues about a crucial part of the whales' lives: courtship and birth.

Observers from the Whale Trust, a Maui-based foundation for research and education, have found that some of the submerged males are calling out the humpback's famous song, filling the seas with strange and lovely incantations. Some of the females are tending new calves as they pile on dozens of pounds daily and, in a year, double their length on their mothers' rich milk. What no one fully grasped until recently was how many other submerged humpbacks are not cruising, not singing or nursing, but simply hanging out.

"The more we searched, the more humpbacks we found just drifting along with the current at a mile or two an hour, 30 to 80 feet (9 to 24 meters) deep," says photographer Flip Nicklin, a longtime marine mammal observer. "Now when I look out across the channel, I picture this river of whales flowing by, hidden from ordinary view."

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0701/feature2/

Be sure to click the link, there is some remarkable video footage too in the sights and sounds section.

Edited February 5, 2008 by Mags

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Go Japan!!

Kill those damn whales!!

[Mags 112]

Go Japan!!

Kill those damn whales!!

Go Japan!

Kill those damn trolls!!

[AnewKINDofFEELIN 0]

China and Japan are both horrible when it comes to ocean conservancy. I think there should be economic sanctions for their whaling and shark fishing.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

When I get home I have to find some dead whale pics for this thread

[Mags 112]

When I get home I have to find some dead whale pics for this thread

When I can be bothered I'll have to find some dead troll pics for this thread.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

[eau_xplain 2]

We need Captain Kirk!

[britty 1]

When I get home I have to find some dead whale pics for this thread

When I can be bothered I'll have to find some dead troll pics for this thread.

I have something that might come in handy Mags?

[Mags 112]

When I get home I have to find some dead whale pics for this thread

When I can be bothered I'll have to find some dead troll pics for this thread.

I have something that might come in handy Mags?

Thanks, Britty. We only need it for VJ Troll some of the time. The rest of the time he's just a doll. Literally.

[britty 1]

When I get home I have to find some dead whale pics for this thread

When I can be bothered I'll have to find some dead troll pics for this thread.

I have something that might come in handy Mags?

Thanks, Britty. We only need it for VJ Troll some of the time. The rest of the time he's just a doll. Literally.

I used to have one of those dolls but mine had orange hair. Alfie, my boy cat, liked to chew its head.

[Mags 112]

I used to have one of those dolls but mine had orange hair. Alfie, my boy cat, liked to chew its head.

Mmmn, that's an idea. If VJ Troll gets out of hand I could sic one of my cats onto him to chew his head.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

It is heartbreaking to see how hated I am.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Whale meat. Yum.

[britty 1]

any further whale meat pics, and I'm chopping off his other leg....