Forget Ear Wax, Whale Dandruff's The Answer
Forget ear wax, whale dandruff's the answer
Apparently Australian scientists have found a reason for Japan's "scientific whaling" program to cease.
The main purpose that Japan's so-called "scientists" are killing the whales is to determine the age of the whales, which was done by counting the layers of the whale's ear wax... and to do so the whale must be dead.
Now Australian scientists found a way to determine the age of whales by analyzing little bits of skin the whales shed.
I doubt, however, that this will really keep the Japanese "scientists" from killing whales....
... Because as we all know Japan has a large market for whale meat - though the profitability of said market is debatable.
- Gary Schmidt
4 comments:
Some things to note:
1) This technique has not actually been developed yet, and even Mr Harrison himself conceeds that it will not be as accurate as examining layers of wax from earplugs.
2) Even if this technique works for one whale, it's highly unlikely to be practical to apply it to the 850 or so minke whales that are randomly selected for sampling each summer in the Antarctic ocean. Same with those ideas about studying faeces. Think about it :-) The Australian scientists need to explain how this technique could be used in population studies that require random sampling. Lethal research is proven - a whale is selected, harpooned, landed, and studied. How much bias would be introduced through hit-and-miss studies of whale poo and dandruff?
3) Even assuming (just for the sake of argument) that this technique might actually one day be a replacement for lethal research, this isn't going to put an end to whaling, anyway.
Why?
What the western media has failed to educate it's populace about is the fact that the ultimate goal of the Institute of Cetacean Research's research programmes (both lethal and non-lethal) is to provide scientific information to make possible the development of commercial whaling industry (as is described in the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, to which both Australia and Japan are signatories).
The end goal is not science for the sake of having scientific information. The ICR is conducting it's research for the purpose of providing information that will be the basis for scientifically based commercial whaling - sustainable catch limits can only be based on scientific information. If that information can be obtained via non-lethal means, so what?
There are still going to be people interested in resuming commercial whaling based on scientific information.
In short, these Australian scientists are wasting their lives with this. Their work isn't going to put a stop to whaling. They only way whaling will end is when all people on earth decide that they don't wish to eat whales anymore.
By the way, the market is not profitable currently. The whale meat sold is used to offset the costs of the research programmes. The Japanese government subsidises the difference
Huge amount of work on the part of scientists. But being a common citizen I doubt that killing whales will bring any good to Japan in terms of economy or environment. Such species must be saved.
The huge amount of comport yourself on the portion of scientists. But creature a common citizen I doubt that killing whales will bring any fine to Japan in terms of economy or packaging sleeves
. Such species must be saved.
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