pete #69 There seem to be no shortage of airhead Kiwis. Pete, you're just another example. Would you say the same about the Germans? What about the Americans for the Vietnam War? What about your ancestors who invaded Aotearoa? But that's not the point. It's no use blaming/stereotyping people for the cruelties by their past generations. What's important is to learn lessons from history and try not to repeat the same mistakes. Pete, you sure need to educate yourself. At the same time try to analyze why there are so many violent crimes in NZ.

Its okay if whale numbers were sustainable, but we all know they will be extinct soon if current practises continue.

If they had stockpiles in 08 why do they need to kill more? http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23206087-2,00.html

The Japanese people need to be shammed into ending this barbaric practice. Perhaps a reminder about the barbaric atrocities they visited upon their neighbors during WWII would suffice.

While some comments here seem to be stupid/illogical/hypocritic, I can second Rex #27 and Evolution VIII #36 respectively. Coming originally from JPN, I think I know a bit about this issue.

As Rex mentioned the harder the pressure from the outside comes the more adamant those Japanese concerned will become. They are right wingish people who just hate being pushed around by foreigners.

The 2 main reasons why I strongly oppose whaling are : 1. as Evolution VIII #36 described, the horrific way the harpooned whales die 2. whales are highly intelligent animals that can be keenly aware of their misfortunes and looming death.

For exactly the same reasons I'm against dolphin drive hunting practiced in parts of JPN and crate pig farms found in NZ. When people are nonchalant about cruelty against animals, they are also indifferent to human sufferings.

And here we go again...

In the name of Science, we've become greedier and more stupider than before. We needed 59 whales to confirm that they "fed on pollack, krill and anchovy"? Was it that no other human on the face of the planet knew that? Did they really need 59 whales to determine that?

Eating whales shouldn't be any different from consuming pigs or beef. But the amount of whales in our waters are far less than pigs and cows walking on our land. And times have changed. We've learnt to produce numerous amounts of land creatures, but seriously not for whales...and besides, it will take lots of money and time, which could be used for equally important things such as food and medicine for people in developing coutries.

I'm not being emotionally attached to whales or anything. But I am worried about them; that the notion that their extinction could be managed could be proved wrong. That we were wrong;our statistics wrong. A slight change in the environment could wipe them out, and we know there aren't much to start of with. And the worst part would be, we never really got to understand these gentle giants. Not that they eat pollack, krill and anchovy, but that they had much much more intelligence than us ludicrous humans.

mmmm ... delicious research ... *drools*

In fact the Inuits in most parts of North America have very strict limitations on how many whales they are allowed to catch for subsistance purposes. From firsthand experience it's rather different to live in the frozen arctic and rely on animals for their meat than to live in Japan and catch 59 in one hit!

So would people have a problem with having a whale farm? Raising whales just for food?

Was it not the Western culture that hunted whales in their tens of thousands almost to extinction in the first place, just to get oil for their lamps, to make soap, pet food and then the rest of the whale was wasted and left to rot..... How ironic they now tell the Japanese they can't eat something they had been sustain ably eating for hundreds of years.