comment: >
  
  I still fail to see the difference of cruelty between killing an animal bred for consumption and a wild animal.
  But the current japan whaling is not too impactful. Between 1988 and 2017 they caught 16k whales. That's 500-600 whales a year, mostly the aforementioned minke whale. Before '88 it was indeed much worse, with 2,8k whales in '86. A minke whale reaches maturity at 7-8 years old, which is longer than cows or pigs, with 1-4 years, granted, but not too long neither.
  Some investigations found some more vulnerable species sold, but most can be explained as bycatch.
  I think you overestimate how much whale meat there is in Japan. Japan relies heavily on stockpiling food, and they had in 2009 5000t of whale in that stockpile (714 average mink whales).
  This selling of whale meat in vending machines is strange, but it's a common thing to do in japan, putting strange things in vending machines.
  Edit: the resuming of commercial whaling in 2019 provides for 3k whales in 10 years, which is 330/year. even less than their deceitful 'scientific' catching of whales.
context: From next month, the company plans to import 3,000 tons of fin-whale meat a year from Iceland, in a deal to support the whaling industry worldwide.
  
  3000 tons per year. >
  
  Yeah but adult fin whales weight like 40-80 tons each, so that's only like ... Oh, oh that's a lot. >
  
  You’re not even factoring in that a huge portion of that total body weight is bone and internal organs that if I had to guess don’t factor into those 3000 tons. Whaling is a barbaric practice, and the Japanese should receive far more international pressure to stop it than they do. >
  
  Completely agree. I think the idea that all cultural ideals, values, and traditions are equally valuable and shouldn’t be judged by those outside of the culture has become too all-encompassing. 
  Within reason, yes we should respect cultural ideals that differ from our own, but when culture and tradition are used to justify animal cruelty, homophobia, misogyny, slavery, etc a line has been crossed. 
  If stoning people because they’re homosexual is a key component of your “cultural identity” or justified on that basis, your culture is flawed and in need of reflection, growth, and change. >
  
  If they want to hunt whales because their ancestors did, fine. They can do it in a rowboat with a hand thrown harpoon, like their ancestors did. >
  
  The Japanese whaling industry started after ww2 when Douglas MacArthur was looking for non military industries to put people back to work. >
  
  That's not true. Japanese have been whaling since the 12th century (or thereabouts). However, Japan vegan whaling on an industrial level around 1890. >
  
  Haven’t we all sold dead whale carcass at one point or another… >
  
  Only out of the back of my car. Bought the product from someone named Poreese. I still think the stuff was cat, but but she insisted it was whale. I'm gonna go with that. >
  
  No live whale pieces for sale? Disappointing. >
  
  No fresh whale sperm either. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined :( >
  
  Was it whale sperm or whale vomit that was so insanely expensive? >
  
  ambergris is from sperm whale >
  
  I imagine the sperm would probably cost a fair bit as well. Must be pretty hard to get >
  
  Not hard if you bring a dedicated whale wanker. >
  
  It must be pretty hard though. You ever tried to wank off a whale when it was flaccid? >
  
  He was flaccid when I started. >
  
  So whale meat? "Dead whale pieces" lol >
  
  Wait til they find out about gas station hot dogs... >
  
  Dead pig anuses and other dead nasty stuff (dead) >
  
  Sometimes the anus is better when it's dead... >
  
  Sometimes >
  
  Cue southpark episode quotes >
  
  FRUCK YOU DORPHIN! AND FRUCK YOU WHRARE! >
  
  So leftovers from the many hundreds of whales killed for, checks notes, research? >
  
  Between whale hunting and shark fin soup I can't understand it. 
  Like someone who has the emotional capability of killing a whale is ridiculous. 
  Meanwhile with shark fin soup it's the cruelest thing you could do to animal. They basically only take the fins and chuck the still living shark back into the water to die an excruciatingly painful death or get eaten without being able to do anything to stop it. >
  
  There are many people with the emotional capacity to kill cows, pigs, chickens, fish. There is nothing strange about being prepared to kill an animal for food. 
  I do agree with the shark fin thing, though. That's just cruel. >
  
  The strange thing is that most countries have banned whale hunting for good reason. Whale populations are extremely fragile and Japan alone has caused collapse in populations. That and their extremely intelligent animals capable of complex thought. 
  Whales haven't been domesticated and raised on farms. That's the big difference. Most wild caught animals have restrictions and rules. Lobster for example have very strict rules on who can catch them and how many along with size and weight restrictions. >
  
  The whale that's most caught is the minke whale, which is 'least concern'. Of the more than 100k minke whales, a little more than 1k are allowed to be caught, and even less are actually caught. Most whales are killed today as collisions with boats, and as bycatch in normal fishing operations. (over 90% in the case of right whales)
  Cows and pigs are intelligent too, at least on the level of dogs. They form friendships and social groups. While i agree that killing less animals is better than killing more animals, the difference between farmed and wild animals is not too clear for me. >
  
  Farmed animals are bred for consumption. Yes their intelligent but theyve been bred as livestock for hundreds of thousands of years. 
  Wild animals, especially intelligent ones are different because you can't just raise more of them. Especially when they take years to develop.
  That's not the topic. The topic is whale meat from Japan which they have express intent to hunt and pay no heed to the ecological impact. The topic isn't by catch.  Wild populations don't replenish well especially for long lived species that take long for sexual maturity. 
  On top of this the amount of whale meat and the quotas for Japan are completely off. They catch way more then their supposed quotas as demonstrated by how common it is in Japan.