comment: >
  
  Personally? I hope the market collapses and people stop hunting them. I don’t give a damn about the politics or markets or whatever. I want people to stop hunting them.
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. >
  
  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. >
  
  Whaling in Japan 
  
  Japanese whaling, in terms of active hunting of whales, is estimated by the Japan Whaling Association to have begun around the 12th century. However, Japanese whaling on an industrial scale began around the 1890s when Japan started to participate in the modern whaling industry, at that time an industry in which many countries participated. Japan resumed commercial whaling in July 2019, and since then whaling activities have been confined to its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone. During the 20th century, Japan was heavily involved in commercial whaling.
  
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  The snickers or the dead whale piece.... >
  
  Can't choose. Throw the small kid at the vending machine until one breaks. >
  
  You're going to be there awhile...kids are built to bounce. So my money's on the vending machine breaking first. >
  
  Nonsense. I think if you throw the little shit hard enough they splatter >
  
  Then we come to the conundrum, which broke/splattered first, the kid or the vending machine? >
  
  I suppose it depends, did he have a helmet on? >
  
  The kid or the vending machine? >
  
  The wildest part about this article is that whale meat is so cheap...... That they serve it as dog food in Norway! >
  
  I literally cannot imagine anything less appetizing than getting seafood out of a vending machine. 🤮 >
  
  TBF Japanese vending machines are on another level. >
  
  I know, their used panties are ridiculously overpriced. Like I could go to a garage sale and pick some up for pennies on the dollar. >
  
  wait until people find out that it's not just overpriced they're not actually used , just have the "appearance" >
  
  That’s atrocious. If a man pays for booty sweat he should be entitled to booty sweat >
  
  Stop. Hunting. Whales. >
  
  The crew of the SS Bob Barker is trying. >
  
  What happened to Sea Shepherd..?!? >
  
  I'm not what you'd call a "conservationist" in the classical sense of the word, but even I know this is ridiculous.   They hunt those whales every year under the guise of "science", and then somehow it ends up in vending machines?
  Start sinking Japanese whaling fleets, this is unacceptable, and has been for about the last 100 years. >
  
  Is there a moral difference between hunting whales and breeding animals specifically for factory meat? >
  
  Yes, there is a major difference.   Starting with chickens and cattle not being endangered apex animals.     We also don't shoot explosive harpoons at cattle and wait for them to bleed out. >
  
  Antarctic minke whales, the species they hunt under the ruse of research, are not endangered. They aren’t even in the threatened status range. >
  
  Except they also hunt Sei whales, which are in fact endangered. >
  
  So does Iceland, but they get a free pass because they’re White. >
  
  No, they don't.  Sei whale don't live near iceland (although it's a secondary habitat they migrate through).   They hunt Fin and Minke.
  Also, start sinking their fleets too.  This is all in violation of international law anyways.  Nobody gets a pass. >
  
  International law? Lmao. No country has the power to enforce laws in international waters. Unless you’re talking about the moratorium on whale hunting which was enacted by the IWC which Japan was a member of up until a year or two ago which did allow hunting of specific whales and a max catch limit and Japan did follow that so they were legally hunting whales. But countries can’t enforce laws 12 miles off their coasts so there isn’t a international law. Iceland and Norway aren’t members of the IWC and just catch what they want because again international law isn’t a thing. You can say something but there’s no requirement to follow it because there is no international force to enforce it. >
  
  Then there should be no problem with sinking those whaling fleets, because they're in international waters, and laws/conventions don't apply there, apparently. >
  
  Leave the whales alone 🤦🏾‍♂️😡 >
  
  Why? What about our western diet? Who are we to judge >
  
  Because they are highly intelligent, social, and empathetic creatures who probably deserve “non-human personhood” designation? >
  
  You can say the same thing about pigs, they're smarter than dogs. >
  
  
  
  I don’t eat pigs.
  
  
  Yes, even though I eat poultry I actually do understand I am a moral hypocrite who is going by connivence and status quo. The prevalence and hypocrisy doesn’t in my mind change the moral calculus that much.
  
  
  Even between pigs and dogs and whales, there is almost a degree in nature instead of kind since whales have awareness of self (pass the mirror test) and display EQs (encephalization quotients) and Neural connection densities more on par with humans. Which again, suggests that whales or more non-human “people” than “animals” >
  
  Pigs also pass the mirror test I think, not sure about EQs. >
  
  Yea I had a feeling pigs would be right on that line. But honestly, that we treat another highly intelligent and social being poorly is kinda just strengthening my main point. >
  
  The whaling industry needs to be shut down >
  
  
  A Japanese whale-hunting company has started selling parts of dead whale in vending machines in an attempt to boost trade.
  Tokyo-based firm Kyodo Senpaku last month set up four machines in the capital and other places, selling whale skin, frozen whale meat and canned, cooked whale pieces.
  It plans to set up three more vending machines by next month. Prices range from 1,000 to 3,000 yen (£6.20 to £18.90).
  If the meat sells well, the company plans to open up to 100 vending machines over five years.
  Conservationists decried the move as a “desperate, cynical sales ploy” by a “cruel and declining” whale-hunting industry.
  Whale meat sales have plummeted in Japan over the past 50 years, so this is an effort to boost trade to support continued hunting, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation charity. It says the company wants to convince the Japanese government it has a good business model to expand quotas in future. >
  
  To be fair, Japan sells virtually everything in vending machines >
  
  Research...uh huh >
  
  why cant we just leave them alone instead of murder for profit >
  
  I want a picture of the vending matching with chunks of whale. >
  
  Dead whale pieces? Shall we start calling beef "dead cow pieces"?
  Don't get me wrong, I definitely disagree with hunting whales versus raising and consuming livestock, but damn is that title over the top... >
  
  I remember seeing a vendor/store selling items made of turtles in a tourist area in Japan or something having a sign in English and Japanese saying their products are likely prohibited in other countries >
  
  They’re still there.  The Asakusa temple area has a LOT. >
  
  Why is whaling still a option? I thought whales were endangered. >
  
  Hi there! Conservationist here. It highly depends on the species. Fin whales (which seem to be a particular target for Japan and Iceland) are very endangered, as are blue, humpback and many other whales like right whales. Some species though, like minke, have recovered to pre-whaling population levels and are now doing very well. There are kind of two arguments for whaling here - one is cultural tradition, the other is because it is 'sustainable' to hunt some species - such as minke. The problem with the former is drawing the line between subsistence hunting of native peoples by kayak in the Arctic circle and industrial mega-whalers with ballistic harpoons such as the Japanese use. One uses the entirety of the animal, bones and all for their way of life, the other is simply to keep the business going. The problem with 'sustainable' whaling is that there are often problems with actually working out what species you are looking at. Having done oceanic mammal surveys in the UK orth sea, it is often hard to actually work out what you are seeing quite a bit of the time in rough conditions! There was a big scandal in Iceland where a pregnant blue whale was killed when one of the mega-whalers was hunting one of the more populous species a couple of years ago. Blues are extremely rare nowadays and whilst they are doing a little better in Antarctica every single one is precious. These animals also have more emotion cells in their brain (called spindle cells) than humans do. They are immensely intelligent, social and peaceful animals. There is also no quick way to kill a whale. So on top of all of that, there are arguments around the ethics of hunting an animal that has at least the intelligence of a child, with a long drawn out chase and kill. So to answer your question, it depends on the species, but ultimately the market is collapsing due to lack of demand and the strong ethical arguments against hunting these animals.