focusing on "saving whales" and not looking at the en tire eccosystem is foolhearty and shortsided at best. Take wolves for example, when my grandfather was young they really hunted the heck out of the wolves, but the caribou on the sw alaska peninsula were really plentiful and utilized for a daily food source. In 2005 we were no longer able to apply for tier2 subsistance permits for caribou due to their low numbers. Now wolves are plentiful and I have to get in a plane and fly several hundred miles to hunt caribou, it is definitely not a subsistance thing anymore. Somehow I doubt that when the elk are mostly gone in northern ID people will switch to hunting and eating wolves.....
The whale population is growing, if the species is plentiful enough to harvest commercially, its out competing something. If we let it go unchecked, while managing other speceis we do them, and ourselves a disfavor. I.e. the killer whale population and its astounding impact on western alaska halibut and blackcod.
Mega props to the japanese for spening the coin on researching the potential for another food source. If any country is going to responsibly study them, they are probably the ones. Feel bad for their heavly passivist govt stance, they should be ramming the little seasheperd morons. Its odd to me that their is very little done with the norwegins, they still activly whale. Somehow I get the distict feeling that a rammed norweigin whaler would be a sunk sea shepard boat.
If the Cod go away Ill be out a winter job, If the salmon don't come back in numbers my summerand half my income is gone. If the resource is not sustainable I'm out of work. If that doesnt qualify me as a conservationist I don't know what does.
My personal opinion is that its about the money, the origional sea shepheard video brought in close to 100mil in dontations, thats a lot more than it costs to drive a trash scow to the south pole. Somebody is making some serious money throwing cherry bombs at japanese scientists, SAVE THE WHALES..... and give me money....
