Regarding Whales and Fishies

Monday, June 19, 2006

So it looks like the Japanese have made some headway to get the ability to hunt whales again. Like most people my age, I have a fascination with Nipponese culture. From anime to ninjas to Godzilla and Gamera, I hope to one day go to Japan, go to Mount Fuji, hang out with the snow monkeys, ride a bullet train, get ramen from a vending machine along with a pair of shorts and see the technology that is at least ten years ahead of us. But their fascination with eating cetaceans disgusts me. I remember growing up the images of the dolphin massacre with the ocean red for miles around and the carcasses piled up like an image from hell.

Then there is this article, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3847167.stm about how they know when a whale is dead after it is harpooned. Usually when all movement has stopped- but how do they know it is not just paralyzed after being impaled? I mean, people can stop moving if they are impaled on something but sometimes, they do not die for hours. Then there is the fact that the harpoons the use can be tipped with a grenade to make it more humane. Yup- not only is there a big needle in your head, it is also now going to explode. Goodbye. We cry bloody murder over the images of prisoner torture in Iraq, but it is okay to blow up a whale’s head. By way, see if is still moving so we can make sure it is dead.

One of the reasons I refuse to eat seafood is the fact that the oceans are over fished and the destructive methods they use to obtain their catches. I eventually would like to be vegetarian, but for now love steak, bacon and fried chicken. Currently also, the soy meat that is available is pretty yummy but can be expensive and often come in teeny, tiny portions. I mean, I live in Texas and would love a Texas sized soy steak- but those do not exist, if you order a soy steak it would probably be the size of a CD.

But, anyway, back to the fishies. Which go pook, pook, pook, by the way. They now have to trawl the nets deeper and deeper to catch fish. They start to sell deep water fish which look start to look less and less like fish die to the immense pressures and the odd evolutionary tactics sued to survive down there. They are really weird creatures. But now they are caught, sold and then served as dinner. It must be a really obscure notion- being a creature that lives a mile underwater, whose organs explode when the go too far up due to the different pressures, and then being forcibly taken to a completely different environment to be eaten by beings who just have a craving for fish.

They are now trying to farm fish nowadays. In the long run I think it will have the same impact that farming has on dry land, with the native species driven out so we have areas to cultivate food for ourselves. And building inlets inland to farm the fish as they have done in the Philippines have shown to have other devastating ecological implications. But I guess it is a step in the right direction to at least consider alternatives to over fishing the oceans. But still, too slow, by the time the fish farms go into full effect will any fish still roam the open seas? Or will it be giant squid for dinner tonight?

Now for something different or maybe not.

What Nury Vitacchi said about my www.Myspace.com page:
Joe, that's a cool site -- you are a funny guy! However, I'm not sure I would share those deathpunk videos with my kids -- especially that song, the entire lyrics of which are "This s*** will f*** you up" repeated endlessly. With sentiments like that, you kind of don't need a warning label!

But, but I love that song.

And I am reminded again of his whale explosion article. Now I wonder if that was the result of an unexploded grenade in the whale’s head. Remember kids, if you are to play with whale carcasses, make sure all exploding kill things that may be stuck in its head probably at the end of the sharp stick stuck in its head have blown up.


________________________________________________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/catterpillarboy
http://catterpillarboy.blogspot.com/